850 Miscellaneous Intelligence, 



quantity of yellow bitter substance. Repeated washing in alco- 

 hol and distilled water separated this substance, and the acid 

 dissolved in boiling water and crystallized by cooling was ob- 

 tained pure. The acid is always of a yellow colour, of a bitter 

 taste, crystalline, soluble in water, and when placed upon a hot 

 coal deflagrates something like nitre. 



Combined with potash, soda, ammonia, baryta, and lime, it 

 formed neutral salts, all of which are described as fulminating. 



In consequence of the suspicion that it might be benzoic acid, 

 BerthoUet, Fourcroy, and Vanqueline, having said, that benzoic 

 acid is formed by the action of nitric acid on indigo, it was 

 compared with that substance as to solvent power, ^c, and found 

 to be essentially different. — Giornale di Fisica, vii. 414. 



23. Researches on a new Acid universally diffused through Vege' 

 tabiesj by M. H. Braconnot. — I first obtained this acid from the 

 tubercules of the dahlia and artichoke, whilst engaged in 

 their analysis, but ignorant of most of its properties, I neglected 

 to insert it as a constituent principle. Some time after, whilst 

 examining the roots of cultivated celery, I found the same prin- 

 ciple, and observed its acid properties. It has, since then, oc- 

 curred so frequently, that I have not met with a single vegetable 

 or succulent root without observing its presence. 



I have found it in the roots of the turnip, carrot, phytolacca, 

 fphytolacca decandriaj, scorzonere (scorzonera hispanica ?J, jjiony, 

 phlomede (tubereuse) in the roots of patience (Rumex pati- 

 enzaj, and of filipendule (Saxifraga ritbraj, where it is united to 

 a colouring principle; in bulbs, the onion; in the stalks and leaves 

 of herbaceous plants ; in the corticle layers of all trees previously 

 deprived of the coloured external bark, from whence it may be 

 obtained in great abundance, sometimes united to a red colouring 

 matter, as in the cherr^^-tree, maple, nut-tree, at other times 

 colourless nearly, as in the elder-tree ; in sawdust of the maple ; 

 in apples, pears, prunes, cucurbitaceous fruits, and, without doubt, 

 in all other fruits ; in grain. 



Before describing the properties of this acid, I should state, that 

 it appears to me very analogous to, if not identical with, the 

 principle so little known under the vague term of jelly. How- 

 ever that may be, it is easily obtained from all parts of plants. 

 If roots containing starch be operated upon, such as those of 

 celery and carrot, they are to be reduced to pulp by rasping, the 

 juice expressed, the residue boiled with water slightly acidified 

 with muriatic acid, then washed, and afterwards heated with a 

 very dilute solution of potash or soda ; a thick mucilaginous 

 liquid results, slightly alkaline, from which muriatic acid se- 

 parates the new acid in the form of an abundant jelly, which 

 should then be well washed. In this state, it is almost colourless, 

 especially when from colourless vegetable substances : it has a 



