15 ON ALBUMEN AND OTHER ANIMAL FLUIDS, 



assume a solid form. I had only to follow up this idea, and 

 shall proceed to state the principal experiments, which were 

 undertaken to establish so probable an opinion*. 

 bumen a boHed* l ' When **HJ»l«ted albumen, cut into small pieces, is 

 boiled in distilled water, it imparts a viscidity to that fluid, 

 showing that something is retained in solution. 

 Triturated in Two hundred grains of the coagulated albumen of an egg 

 were repeatedly washed and triturated in four ounces of dis- 

 tilled water, which was afterwards separated by a filter, and 

 evaporated to about one fourth of its original bulk. It was 

 Yielded alkali, then examined by the usual tests, and was found evidently 

 alkaline ; it converted the yellow of turmeric to a pale brown, 

 and restored the blue colour to litmus paper, reddened by 

 vinegar; but it did not appear to effervesce on the addition 

 of a dilute acid. 

 The solution On evaporating this alkaline fluid to dryness, by a gentle 

 evaporated. beat, a viscid substance, soluble in water, was obtained. 

 This solution was rendered slightly turbid by an acid; and 

 by the application of electricity, from sixty four-inch dou- 

 ble plates, a copious coagulation took place at the negative 

 pole. 

 Contained al- So that water, in which the coagulated white of egg has 

 bumen. been boiled, is in fact an extremely dilute alkaline solution 



of albumen. 



This enables us also to explain why albumen becomes co- 

 agulated simply by heat. 

 Alkaline ftto. When the coagulated white of egg is cut into pieces, a 

 tionofalbu- sm .all quantity of a brown viscid fluid gradually separates 

 fro^ ooaguto from it, as has been observed by Dr. Bostock in his paper on 

 ted white of t j U o primary animal flaidsf. This 1 find to consist princi- 

 eiJe ' pally of an alkaline solution of albumen. It reddens tur^ 



mrric, and coagulates abundantly on the application of ne- 

 gative electricity. * 

 White of egg a & appears, therefore, that the white of an egg, in its fluid 

 compound of state, is a compound of albumen with alkali and water; that 

 albumen, al- 



* On referring afterwards to Dr. Thomson's System of Chemistry (Vol. 

 V, page 491), 1 find, that a very similar explanation of the coagulation 

 of albumen has been offered b> that author; which the following exp»» 

 riments will likewise confirm. 



+ Nicholson's Journal, Vol, XI-»24G % 



when 



