224 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVEEY. 



removal of surplus phosphates, as in the waste and renewal of the 

 bones, is well known. 



All these considerations led me to the conviction that if it were 

 possible to prepare phosphoric acid in some form of acid phosphate 

 of lime, such that, after its action with moist carbonate of soda, it 

 would leave phosphate of soda (a constituent of the blood) and phos- 

 phate of lime (an essential constituent of food), and confer upon it 

 the necessary qualities of a dry, pulverulent acid, the end would be 

 so far attained as to justify a practical experiment in domestic use. 



I succeeded in producing the article in condition to meet the wants 

 of the problem. I then introduced it into my family for use in 

 all forms, as a substitute for cream of tartar for culinary purposes. 

 When many months of daily use had assured me that my theoretical 

 views were sustained by practical application, I gave it into the 

 hands of friends, whose prolonged experience fully confirmed my 

 own. It has been in constant use in my family now for more than 

 four years ; and in the form of yeast powder during this time it has 

 been produced and consumed in all parts of the country to a very 

 large extent, settling, in the most satisfactory manner, all questions 

 as to its serviceability and healthfulness. 



ARTIFICIAL LIQUORS. 



The popular opinion that so-called artificial liquors are prepared 

 from poison, is simply an error, and any person claiming to be a 

 chemist, and at the same time promoting this idea, is, to say the least, 

 expounding something he does not understand. The odors or flavors 

 of flowers, fruits, and wines, as well as of the genuine liquors, are the 

 very same compound ethers that are used for compounding artificial 

 wines or liquors. Thus the butyrate of ethyl, commonly called bu- 

 tyric ether, is the flavoring principle of the pineapple as well as of 

 Jamaica rum, and is therefore used to give to pure alcohol the flavor 

 of rum. The pelargonate and the oenanthylate of ethyl are contained 

 in a great variety of wines, and the same ethers prepared in the lab- 

 oratory of the chemist, instead of that of nature, serve to flavor weak- 

 ly-scented wines, and to impart to them a bouquet according to the 

 intent or taste of the operator. The butyrate of amyl, prepared from 

 butyric acid and fusel-oil, in a very minute proportion, constitutes 

 the flavor of brandy. The other ingredients used for making liquors 

 from alcohol, are burnt sugar, and some astringents, such as catechu, 

 kino, or tannic acid. We do not believe that a liquor containing 

 strychnia could be sold, nor one containing dilute oil of vitriol or 

 nitric acid, except in very minute proportion, when they could only 

 do good. Assertions to the contrary are not to be trusted. Drug- 

 gists' Circular. 



NEW VEGETABLE PRINCIPLE. 



M. Ad. Chatin announces (Comptes Rendus, 1860, p. 810) the dis- 

 covery of a colorless, neutral, nitrogenized and non-coagulable prin- 

 ciple, which he says exists in a notable proportion in all vegetable 

 tissues in process of formation, and which for the present he desig- 

 nates A. This matter exists in all vegetables, and is held in solution 



