120 [July, 



heavier than water, of the consistenc}' of wax, hut sticky and elastic. It contains 

 Wax, which is in larger quantity in the white than in the inner layer. Heated on 

 the platinum foil a portion of the body melts and flows to another part of the 

 platinum, where by further heating it diffuses the odor of wax. The residue does 

 not melt, but swells up by greater heat, with a smell of burned leather, and leaves 

 a porous coke, burning off with great difficulty, and with a slight ash. The sub- 

 stance in warm water is softened and partly dissolves, leaving white insoluble 

 flakes; the filtrate gives a precipitate on boiling, which precipitate does not melt 

 by heat, nor is it soluble in alcohol or ether. The original substance does not 

 dissolve in alcohol or ether, but in the latter menstruum is covered on the sur- 

 face with a white coating. In warm dilutfe hydrochloric acid it is slightly attacked, 

 but not completely dissolved. Tested for nitrogen by Lassaigne's method, by 

 fusion with sodium and obtaining the precipitate of Prussian blue, it indicated the 

 presence of considerable quantities of that element. As the body appears to be 

 composed of at least three substances, and the quantity at my disposal weighed 

 but three decigrammes, I was unable to subject it to an ultimate analysis. 



From its reactions it appears to contain, besides wax, albumen and protein 

 compounds. It is truly a bread containing albuminous compounds, which 

 would probably prove, on analysis, similar to the gluten of wheat, for the nourish- 

 ment of the plastic organs of the body. The examination of this substance was 

 interesting in connection with the Mexican ant honey. The latter contains 

 no nitrogen, and would therefore seem incapable alone of affording nourishment 

 to the young insect, as supposed by some, and which young, in the case of bees, 

 are fed by pollen. Perhaps the accumulation of honey in the ant is the result of 

 a disease like diabetes ; though it would seem improbable that it should be a dis- 

 ease so widely diffused. These ants do not, I suppose, make wax or an analogous 

 substance, which is the use of the tioney of the bee. 



The examination of compounds occurring in the lower animals, which are also 

 the result of the decomposition of amylaceous and albuminous substances, and a 

 comparison of these compounds with the animal's food, has been much neglected 

 by chemists. Yet it would seem that the study of certain decompositions deemed 

 physiologically important, could be more readily carried out upon those lower 

 orders whose organs are less complex. The food of animals is in general very 

 similar, as well in the percentage proportion of its constituents as in the rational 

 formulae of its elements. It consists, as is well known, of nitrogenized com- 

 pounds for formation, and amylaceous ones for respiration. The amylaceous 

 compounds, in particular, have been well studied in all their transformations out 

 of the body, and to a certain extent as occurring in man and in a few animals. 

 The three principal radicals of this class, amyl, ethyl, and formyl, and their 

 compounds and derivatives, are well known. It is therefore significant, and sug- 

 gestive of further research, when we find the three acids of their alcohol radicals 

 in the animal, as valerianic in the oil of Delphinus globiceps, acetic in man, &c., 

 and formic in the ant ; these acids and other products of decomposition of the 

 three radicals being besides found in other animals and in plants, and some in a 

 diseased state of plant or animal. If it be desirable to study that mysterious 

 force, the vital, how can it be done but by its effects, for which nature must be 

 cross-examined in her every form. This is the more important, as we find vitality 

 to determine the resolution of the same food into different products in different 

 animals, as may be required for their existence. We have a beautiful example 

 of this in the case of the bee. One of the simplest transformations of an organic 

 compound is that of cane to grape sugar ; it requires merely the absorption of two 

 equivalents of water by the former. Grape sugar appears by the phenomena of 

 fermentation to be more readily decomposable than cane sugar ; and we accord- 

 ingly find this change taking place in the body of the bee in the formation of its 

 honey, which is to be worked up again into wax. When cane sugar is given to 

 bees for the formation of wax, wax is indeed formed, but apparently with more 

 difficulty, and does not detach itself readily as in vsax from honey. This excre- 

 ment of honey compared with food is probably the simplest occurring in animal 

 life. 



