•iiSI Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON A NEW REAGENT FOR ASCERTAINING THE PRESENCE OF 

 SUGAR IN CERTAIN LIQUIDS. BY M. MAUMEN^. 



Chemists have indicated several processes for the detection of 

 sugar, even under the singular circumstances of diabetes. Unfor- 

 tunately no one of these processes is sufficiently simple for adoption 

 in medical practice. The author proposes one by means of a re- 

 agent of tissue, which will instantly discover the presence of the 

 smallest quantity of sugar. 



The action of chlorine on sugar is very imperfectly known, and 

 the experiments which M. Maumene has performed have shown nu- 

 merous inaccuracies in the assertions which have been made by cele- 

 brated chemists. Thus chlorine acts even on dry sugar ; it requires 

 only 212°F. to excite the reaction ; when cold, more time is required. 

 In all cases a brown matter is formed, partly soluble in water, be- 

 coming a brilliant black caramel when it is dried. This is obtained 

 by chlorine, and it is easily procured with the chlorides, and espe- 

 cially with the perchlorides. 



All sugars act in the same way as cane-sugar with the chlorides ; 

 all undergo the dehydratation, the brown-black product of which 

 is the final completion. And this is not all ; as may be foreseen, 

 substances, the composition of which is analogous to that of sugar, 

 and which may also be represented by carbon and water, undergo the 

 same kind of alteration : this is the case with lignin, hemp, flax, 

 cotton, paper, starch, fecula, &c. 



From all these facts results a knowledge of the conditions requi- 

 site for preparing a substance which has imbibed the reagent proper 

 for discovering the presence of sugar. Strips of white merino an- 

 swer this purpose ; after having soaked it during three or four mi- 

 nutes in an aqueous solution of bichloride of tin, made with 100 

 parts of the bichloride of commerce and 200 parts of water, the 

 merino is drained, and when dried in a water-bath on a strip of the 

 same stuff, the reagent is prepared. It is to be cut into portions 

 of 7 to 10 centimetres in length and 2 to 3 wide, like common test- 

 papers. 



By employing this chlorinated merino, the physician can, without 

 any trouble, determine whether the urine contains an appreciable 

 trace of sugar. It is sufficient to let fall a drop of the urine on the 

 prepared test, and to hold it over red-hot charcoal, or the flame of a 

 spirit-lamp, to produce in a minute a very visible black spot. I'he 

 sensibility of this reagent is extreme ; ten drops of diabetic urine, 

 added to 100 cubic centimetres of water, form a liquid with which 

 the test is rendered completely brownish -black. Common urine, 

 urea and lithic acid, yield no such discoloration with chloride of tin. 

 — Comptes Rendus, Mars 18, 1850. 



FORMATION OF ASPARTIC ACID WITH BIMALATE OF AMMONIA. 

 BY M. DESSAIGNES. 



To M. Piria is due our knowledge of the interesting fact, that 

 asparagin and aspartic acid, submitted to the oxidizing action of ni- 

 trous gas, disengage nitrogen a»d leave a residue of malic acid. He 



