542 PROFESSOR CONNELL'S ANALYSIS 



Dr DOUGLAS MACLAGAN. I was then directed by Dr BALFOUR to Cormack's 

 Journal of Medical Science,* for the results of Dr MACLAGAN'S analysis. It ap- 

 pears that his specimen contained some soft matter as well as hard, and the por- 

 tion examined by him consisted partly of both these kinds. The constituents he 

 found were 



Hard woody fibre, 76.5 



Vegetable albumen, . . . . . .1.5 



Bitter matter, soluble in water and alcohol, . . 2.5 

 Gum, with phosphate of lime, .... 5.5 



Ashes, 0.5 



Moisture, ... . . 13.5 



100. 



The bitter matter, he states, evolved a urinous odour by heat ; and the ashes 

 were phosphates and a little silica. A portion of the harder part he found to 

 contain only 9 per cent, of moisture, and 2 per cent, of ashes, consisting of earthy 

 phosphates, silica, and various alcaline salts. 



An allusion is made by Dr MACLAGAN to an examination of this substance 

 by Dr PERCY of Birmingham, but I have never seen his results. 



My own results do not differ very materially from those of Dr MACLAGAN ; 

 and those differences which do occur, arise, I believe, chiefly from the circum- 

 stance that the azotised principles of vegetables have been much studied by 

 chemists, in the short interval which has elapsed since his analysis was made. 

 The leading difference is, that I have found the vegetable ivory to contain from 

 3 to 4 per cent, of an azotised substance, which appears to be either identical with 

 or closely allied to legumin or vegetable casein. T have also found nearly 1 per 

 cent, of fixed oil. 



The matter examined by me, was, as already stated, the fine turnings obtained 

 in the process of working and carving the nut into ornaments. I got them from 

 one of the London workmen ; and, of course, they must be viewed as the hardest 

 portion of the nut. They constituted a white powdery substance, mixed with 

 some larger shavings, and were capable of being reduced to still finer particles by 

 rubbing in a mortar. When moistened with water, the transparency of the thin 

 shavings was increased. 



When the turnings were heated they took fire and burned with flame, the 

 combustion sustaining itself like that of wood. A white ash was left, dissolved 

 by water acidulated with an acid. When pressed in blotting paper between 

 heated metallic plates, no oily stain was noticed, but it will afterwards be seen' 



1841, p. 614. 



