302 ALTERATION OF FLESH BY AfR AND \VAT*R. 



XVII. 



Note on the Alteration, that Air and Water produce in Flesh* 

 by Mr. C. L. Berthollet*. 



Beef boiled in A Boiled some beef, renewing the water from time to time, 

 •water repeat- \\\\ the water no longer afforded a precipitate with tannin, 

 edly, exposed »•'••'• • 1 



to the action I then suspended it in a glass cylinder filled with atmo- 



c * air > spheric air, which rested on a plate filled with water. After a 



few days the oxigen was found to he converted into carbo- 

 nic acid : the interior of the cylinder was rilled with a putrid 



and again boil- sme ^ : tne Dee f» subjected to ebullition, again afforded a 



«d. pretty copious precipitate with tannin: the boiling was re- 



peated, till tannin ceased to render the water turbid: and 

 the beef, having almost entirely lost its smell, was replaced 

 in the same apparatus. 



This done re- ' The operation was repeated several times, and the fol- 



peatediy. lowing were the results. 



Results. The alteration of the atmospherie air, and the emission of 



the putrid smell, gradually slackened : the quantity of ge- 

 latine formed progressively diminished : the water on 

 which the vessel rested gave but slight indications of am- 

 monia throughout the whole process : when I terminated it, 

 no putrid smell was perceptible, but a smell resembling 

 that of cheese : and in fact the animal substance, which 

 scarcely retained any fibrous appearance, had not only the 

 smell, but precisely the taste of old cheese. 



Beef and I distilled separately equal weights of beef and Gruyere 



cheese sepa- c heese, employing; two glass bodies, each of which commu- 

 lately distilled. •,.,?• i rr.i 



nicated with a tube opening under water. 1 he operation 



was conducted so as to decompose the two substances as far 



as possible, and retain all the ammonia, that was evolved. 



Less ammonia On comparing the quantities of ammonia, that afforded by 



from the t ^ e c heese was to that of the beef nearly as 19 to -24: 



whence it appears, that a distinguishing characteristic of 



the caseous substance is to contain less nitrogen than 



flesh. 



* Journal de Physique, Vol. LXV, p". 466. 



If 



