180 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



filter twice washed with boiling distilled water. The filtered liquids 

 are then well mixed and divided into two exactly equal portions, 

 which are separately introduced into two small matrasses. To 

 these liquids is then added, little by little, a test liquid so made that 

 each cubic inch represents a known quantity of nitrate of silver. 

 After every addition the liquid is to be shaken, and the additions are 

 continued until when left at rest it becomes clear, and this will only 

 take place when the saturation is perfect. The proper precautions 

 must of course be taken to prevent precipitating the chlorides and 

 sulphates with the phosphates. The phosphate of silver can always 

 be reconverted, so that the expense of the operation is very small. 



INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS OF THE OAT PLANT. 



A RECENT chemical journal contains the records of a series of in- 

 teresting experiments on the necessary inorganic constituents of the 

 oat plant. Single grains were sown in pure charcoal, prepared from 

 sugar, contained in little tin vessels lined with wax. Without the 

 addition of any thing to the charcoal a plant was obtained, but it was 

 very small and sickly. Ammonia salts alone produced a plant of a 

 lively green color, but still small and weak ; increase of these salts 

 in a second and third experiment killed the plant. A mixture com- 

 posed of silicate of potash, carbonate, sulphate, and phosphate of 

 lime, produced a plant of double the size. On adding to this mix- 

 ture an ammonia salt, the weight of the plant was quadruple that of 

 the last, but still weak for want of iron, as another experiment proved. 

 On the addition of oxide of iron to the mixture, a much finer plant 

 was obtained, but withered spots appeared on its leaves. In another 

 case, where the salts of the last experiment were supplied, with the 

 addition of a little carbonate of magnesia, no such appearance was 

 observed, and the plant was, besides, in all respects materially im- 

 proved. It was ascertained further, that soda could not be substituted 

 for potash, nor magnesia for lime, without injury to the plant. Many 

 other experiments with the omission of individual constituents were 

 made, from which it was inferred what are essentials and what are 

 not. The conclusion from the whole investigation was, that silicic, 

 phosphoric, and sulphuric acids, potash, lime, magnesia, iron, and 

 manganese, are essential constituents of the oat plant. John A. Porter, 

 Albany Cultivator. 



INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS ON FLOUR AND WHEAT. 



PROFESSOR LEWIS C. BECK has been for some time engaged In 

 making investigations into the chemical constituents of the bread- 

 stuffs of the United States, and he has embodied the results obtained, 

 as far as relates to flour and wheat, in a report which is published 

 with that of the Patent-Office. His object was to ascertain how the 

 intrinsic value of the various breadstutfs may be determined, their in- 

 jury guarded against, and their adulterations detected. 



