Chemistry. 369 



lartl, have found in the black matter vomited in some affections of the 

 stomach, is aposepedine. 



19. Caseic Acid. — The substance called caseate of ammonia by Proust, and 

 separated by the action of alcohol from impure caseous oxide or aposepe- 

 dine, appears to be a very complex substance. The alcoholic solution, on 

 standing for about a month, deposited a little animal matter which Proust 

 supposed to be gum. It yielded likewise some rather large flattened hexa- 

 hedral crystals, which were quite clear and transparent, and proved to be 

 phosphate of soda and ammonia, derived, M. Braconnot conceives, from the 

 serum contained in the curd. He admits, however, that he has not proved 

 that this salt really exists in milk. The alcoholic solution, after deposit- 

 ing the double phosphate, was found to contain the following substances : 

 1. Free acetic acid ; 2. Aposepedine ; 3. Animal matter soluble in water and 

 insoluble in rectified alcohol, supposed to be osmazome ; 4. Animal matter 

 soluble both in water and alcohol ; 5. Yellow oil, fluid and very pungent ; 

 6. Brown resin, slightly sapid; 7. Acetate of potash; 8. Muriate of potash ; 

 and, lastly. Traces of the acetate of ammonia. The caseic acid of Proust 

 has, therefore, no existence ; and the acidity of the supposed compound is 

 owing to acetic acid, while its pungency is chiefly occasioned by the yel- 

 low oil. 



The insoluble matter left^fter the fermentation of 750 grammes of curd 

 was allowed to ferment during another month, and was then washed and 

 dried. It weighed 36 grammes, which consisted of margarate of lime 

 14.92 grammes; margaric acid 2.57 ; oleic acid retaining margaric acid and 

 a brown animal niatter 18.51 grammes. — An. de Ch. et de Ph. xxxv. 159. 



20. On the Identity of the acidulous Malate of Althein with Asparagin. 

 (An. de Ch. et de Ph., xxxv. 175 — In a memor addressed to the Society 

 of Pharmacy at Paris, M. Bacon Professor at the school of medicine of 

 Caen, announced the discovery of a new vegetable alkali, derived from 

 the root of the marsh-mallow {Althcea officinalis), and to which he accord- 

 ingly applied the name of Althein. M. A. Plisson, at the request of M. 

 Henry, has repeated the experiments of M. Bacon, and has come to the 

 conclusion, that what the latter chemist regarded as a supermalate of al- 

 thein is asparagin. The crystals obtained from the marsh-mallow occur 

 in the form of a rectangular octahedron, six-sided prism, or a right rhom- 

 bic prism, a series of crystallization which M. Plisson finds exactly similar 

 to that of asparagin. The supposed supermalate does not contain any ma- 

 lic acid. When properly purified, it does not act on test paper, and has 

 the same relation to chemical re-agents as asparagin. 



M. Plisson states, that when asparagin is boiled for some time with hy- 

 drate of lead or magnesia, it is resolved into ammonia and a new acid, 

 neither of which he believes to have existed previously. To the new acid 

 he has given the name of asparartic acid, from Asparagus ars. It was 

 prepared by boiling the hydrate of lead with asparagin from the mallow, 

 washing the white powder that remains, and decomposing it by means of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen. By evaporating the filtered liquid, the acid was ob- 

 tained. It crystallizes in small brilliant scales somewhat like those of bo- 



