230 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



knowletJge of a compound produced by the action of sulphuric acid 

 and alcohol, of which they seem at present altogether ignorant, and 

 which would have probably caused serious alterations in their views, 

 at least with regard to sulphovinic acid. We refer to what is known 

 in London, and sold at Apothecaries Hall, by the name of oil ofwinCy 

 not the hydrocarbon referred to by MM. Dumas and Boullay, but 

 a neutral compound of sulphuric acid with hydrocarbon, containing, 

 with the same proportion of sulphuric acid, twice as much hydro- 

 carbon as the sulphovinic acid. It is of this compound that Mr. 

 Hennel speaks in the following passage, which we cannot refrain 

 from quoting : " M. Vogel, who has particularly described some of 

 these salts (sulphovinates), and I believe also M. Gay-Lussac, 

 have supposed that this loss of saturating power arises from the 

 formation of hyiJosulphuric acid, and that the hyposulphates and 

 sulphovinates only differ in the latter containing some ethereal 

 oil, which in some way acts the part of water of crystallization. It 

 is evident that the properties of oil of wine cannot be thus ex- 

 plained ; and it appears to me more probable that the power of 

 combination which hydro-carbon is shown to be possessed of in oil of 

 wine, is effective in neutralizing half the acid of the salts formed 

 from it (sulphovinates) as before described.'* 



21. On Prousfs Caseous Oxide and Caseic Acid. — The results ob- 

 tained by Proust,* relative to the substances produced by the fer- 

 mentation of cheese, have been examined and described by M. Henri 

 Braconnot. The substance which Proust distinguished as caseous 

 oxide, he shows to have no claim to such a title, and proposes to 

 call it Aposepedine, as being produced by putrefaction. It also 

 appears to be produced in certain morbid diseases. 



The properties which Proust has assigned to caseic add, belongs, 

 according to M. Braconnot, to various contaminating substances, 

 none of which have any title to be considered as a particular acid. 

 The substances present are free acetic acid ; aposepedine ; animal 

 matter soluble in water and insoluble in alcohol (ozmazome); 

 animal matter soluble in both water and alcohol ; a yellow acrid 

 fluid oil ; a brown resin ; acetate and muriate of potash, and traces 

 of acetate of ammonia. 



On examining the fatty matter of cheese, Braconnot found it to 

 consist of margarate of lime with margaric and oleic acids ; the 

 butter having undergone the same kind of change during the fer- 

 mentation of the cheese, as that produced when it is saponified by 

 the action of alkalies or other bodies. — Annales de ChimiCy xxxvi. 

 159. 



III. Natural History. 



1. Distribution of Nerves in Muscular Fibre. — In a memoir on Mus- 

 cular Action, MM. Dumas and Prevost have communicated some 



• See Quarterly Jofumal of Science; vii, p. 389. 



