484 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



four hundred parts of water are added. After settling, the 

 aqueous liquid is drawn off from beneath, the tallow collected, 

 and again made into an emulsion with one hundred parts of 

 water, and then washed with four hundred parts of boiling wa- 

 ter to remove any carbonate of soda it may retain. The bet- 

 ter kinds of tallow require treatment in this way twice, others 

 three times ; for the second treatment a two to four per cent, 

 solution of the carbonate of soda is employed ; at the third, 

 a two to three per cent, solution. It is afterward simply 

 washed with water, or water with the addition of one per cent, 

 liydrochloric acid, and then with pure water. All the wash- 

 ings must be made with boiling water, and the mixture must 

 be kept boiling for one-quarter to one-half hour, in order to 

 expel volatile impurities. It is best to use distilled water, 

 or at least water that has been freed from lime by carbonate 

 of soda, to avoid the formation of a lime soap. The fatty 

 acids are contained, mainly, in the first carbonate of soda 

 liquid, and can be utilized for soap, stearine, etc. On a large 

 scale, the boiling can be effected in wooden vessels by steam 

 pipes. 13 (7, October 1, 1872, 1300. 



ACTION OF MICROZYMES ON MILK, ETC. 



Bechamp some years ago announced to the world the dis- 

 covery, on his part, of certain organic bodies, called by him 

 Microzymes, and existing, as living organisms, among other 

 conditions, in immense numbers in chalk, where, of course, 

 they must have remained since the cretaceous period. Re- 

 ferring again to their bodies, he has lately called attention to 

 their influence upon spontaneous coagulation, as also to the 

 normal production of alcohol and acetic acid in milk. He 

 maintains that the microzvmes, of whatever oricfin, whether 

 from the chalk or other calcareous formation, the atmosphere, 

 the dust of the streets, or from animals or vegetables, all pos- 

 sess the power of forming alcohol and acetic acid, not only 

 with glucogenous matters, but also with substances incapa- 

 ble of being converted into ordinary sugar, such as tartaric, 

 citric, muric, and lactic acids, etc. In ripening and rotting 

 fruits, it is the same agent which produces the alcohol and 

 acetic acid that are so specially manifested. He refers, in 

 conclusion, to the hypothesis of Liebig in regard to the alter- 

 ability of albuminoid substances in the phenomena of fer- 



