2.">2 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



citra-couic acid, which is foraied by heating citric acid, consists of the ele- 

 ments of oxalic acid combined with acetone. 



The future investigations of these highly important discoveries promise a 

 rich harvest for the physiological chemistry of vegetable life. Buchner's 

 Jiepertoi'ium. 



ELECTRICAL CONVERSION OF SUGAR INTO ALCOHOL. 



At a recent meeting of the French Academy, M. Niepce St. Victor read a 

 paper giving an account of some experiments which showed that, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, electricity produced the same effect on sugar as fermen- 

 tation does, transforming it into alcohol. He found that by passing an 

 electric current through very sugary white wine, the wine loses all its sugar, 

 and becomes much more alcoholic. On the other hand, the effect of the 

 action of light on absolute alcohol, under certain conditions, is to re-transform 

 a portion of the alcohol back into sugar ; the alcohol becoming very sugary, 

 and having its strength reduced several degrees. 



ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE ANIMAL PORTION OF OUR FOOD, 

 AND ITS RELATIONS TO BREAD. 



The general conclusions of a paper on the above subject, recently read 

 before the Chemical Society, London, by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, were, 

 that only a small proportion of the increase of a fattening animal was com- 

 posed of nitrogenous matter; that from five to ten per cent only of the nitro- 

 genous matter of the food was stored up in the body of the animal; but that 

 the amount of fat stored up was frequently greater than the amount supplied 

 in the food, despite the loss incurred in the maintenance of the respiratory 

 function. Hence the comparative values of fattening foods were propor- 

 tional rather to the amounts of respiratory than of assumed flesh-forming 

 constituents. It was calculated that in those portions of the carcasses of oxen 

 actually consumed as human food, the amount of dry fat was from two to 

 three times as great as the amount of dry nitrogenous matter, and in the 

 eaten portions of the carcasses of sheep and pigs more than four times as 

 great. By substituting for the above proportions of fat their respiratory 

 equivalents in starch, so as to allow of a comparison between meat and bread, 

 the ratios become six or seven to one, and eleven to one, respectively. From 

 the independent determinations of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, Dr. F. Watson, 

 and Dr. Adling, it appeared that in wheat bread the ratio of starchy to nitro- 

 genous matter was as six or seven to one, so that in bread the proportion of 

 assumed flesh-forming constituents to respiratory constituents was greater 

 than in the eaten portions of sheep and pigs, and quite equal to that of the 

 eaten portions of oxen, a conclusion altogether opposed to the prevalent 

 notions on the subject. 



A NEW ALKALOID IN COCA. 



Coca is the name under which the leaves of several species of Erythroxylon 

 are and have been known in Peru from time immemorial, and which, espe- 

 cially among the Indians, are used for chewing, mixed with a little unslacked 

 lime or wood-ashes. A moderate use is said to produce such an excitement 

 of the functions as to enable the chewer to remain some time without food, 



