196 Notice of some Recent [March 



VEGETABLE BODIES. 



Sugar of Secale Cornutum, (Jahresbericht, 1834, 275.) — 

 Wiggers describes a species of sugar obtained from this 

 fungus, by treating it with water and alcohol, which crystal- 

 lizes in four-sided prisms. It is transparent and colourless, 

 soluble in alcohol and water, insoluble in ether. Forms 

 oxalic acid when nitric acid is poured on it, but does not 

 decompose by boiling the acetate of copper. It is very 

 similar to the mushroom sugar, only the latter crystallizes 

 in right angled prisms. 



Starch. — The French chemists have been much engaged 

 with investigating the composition of this important sub- 

 stance. Their exertions deserve praise, for it is quite obvi- 

 ous that an accurate knowledge of its nature must precede 

 any great improvement in the conversion of its elements 

 into several important luxuries of life. M. M. Payen and 

 Persoz describe a substance procured from it to which they 

 apply the term diatase, possessing very powerful properties. 

 It is procured by bruising in a mortar fresh sprouted barley, 

 moistening it with half its weight of water, and submitting 

 it to pressure. The liquid which separates is mixed witn a 

 quantity of alcohol sufficient to destroy its viscidity, and 

 precipitate the azotized matter, which is separated by filtra- 

 tion. The filtered solution precipitated by alcohol affords 

 impure diatase, which is purified by three additional solu- 

 tions in water and precipitations. It is then collected on a 

 filter, and dried in a thin layer on a plate of glass by a 

 current of hot air, and lastly, pulverized and placed in 

 well stoppered flasks. Diatase has no action upon the 

 fibrous matter, inuline, gum-arabic, lignine, albumen, glu- 

 ten, tannin, or animal charcoal, but upon fecula it possesses 

 a most wonderful action, dissolving two thousand times its 

 weight of fecula in four times the weight of water, at a 

 temperature between 149° and 161°. 



The fecula, according to the same chemists, consists of 

 99* 5 parts of a substance which they term amidone, and 0-5 

 fibrous matter. Amidone is procured by boiling for some 

 minutes a mixture of one part of fecula in 100 parts of 

 water, passing through a double filter, evaporating rapidly 

 and drying it in thin slices. By taking it up with cold 

 water, filtering, evaporating, and drying, the substance is 



