72 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



M. Henri Braconnot. The substance which Proust distinguished as 

 caseous oxide, he shows to have no claim to such a title, and proposes 

 to call it aposepedine, as being produced by putrefaction. It also ap- 

 pears to be produced in certain diseases. The properties which 

 Proust has assigned to caseic acid, belong, according to M. Braconnot, 

 to various contaminating substances, none of which have any title to 

 be considered as a particular acid. The substances present are free 

 acetic acid; aposepedine; animal matter, soluble in water and insoluble 

 in alcohol (ozmazome) ; animal matter, soluble in both water and 

 alcohol; a yellow, acrid, fluid oil ; a brown resin ; acetate and muriate 

 of potash, and traces of acetate of ammonia. 



On examining the fatty matter of cheese, Braconnot found it to 

 consist of margarate of lime with margaric and oleic acids ; the butter 

 having undergone the same kind of change during the fermentation 

 of cheese, as that produced when it is saponified by the action of al- 

 kalies or other bodies. — Ann. de Chim. xxxvi. p. 159. 



RIB OF A WHALE FOUND IN THE DILUVIUM OF BRIGHTON 

 CLIFFS. 



A short time since some labourers employed in collecting flints 

 from the beach near Kemp Town (a new suburb erecting to the east 

 of Brighton), observed the extremity of a large bone projecting from 

 the base of the cliff. They immediately broke off a portion of it, but 

 the remainder was fortunately so impacted in the rock that they were 

 unable to remove it without more labour than they were willing to 

 bestow. Intelligence of the discovery having reached Mr. Mantell of 

 Castle Place, Lewes, he visited the spot, and assisted by the labourers, 

 succeeded in making an excavation to the extent of three or four 

 yards in the cliff, and completely exposed the bone without injuring 

 it in the slightest degree ; but unfortunately in attempting to remove 

 it subsequently, it fell to pieces*. This fragment of bone (for it evi- 

 dently was but a small portion of the original) measured nine feet in 

 length, the piece destroyed by the workmen was estimated at about 

 three feet, so that the specimen when first discovered must have been 

 twelve feet long ; from its slight degree of curvature it could not have 

 been less than thirty feet when entire. The circumference of the 

 largest extremity was thirty-four inches, and the bone gradually di- 

 minished in size, terminating obtusely. The surface was almost flat 

 on the inner side of the curvature, and convex on the outer, corre- 

 sponding in this respect with the ribs of the common whale. From 

 a mere fragment of bone, however gigantic, it is of course impossible 

 to decide positively as to the animal to which it belonged ; yet as 

 this example was too enormous to have belonged to any terrestrial 

 animal, and not only in form but also in structure bore a close ana- 

 logy to the rib of a whale, it may with but little hesitation be consi- 

 dered as the sternal portion of a rib of that animal. According to 



* A fragment five feet long was, however, removed to Mr. Mantell's 

 museum. 



Mr. 



