158 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF THE EGG 



M. Barreswil has presented to the Academy of Sciences a memoir 

 in which he states that he has found sugar in the albumen of the egg, 

 and that the albumen is alkaline owing to the presence of carbonate 

 of soda ; he finds also that the yolk contains little or no alkali, and 

 that its emulsive property is derived from a product resembling the 

 pancreatic juice, which is not acid, and becomes so only by under- 

 going alteration. He further states that the acid reaction and pro- 

 perties of the gastric juice are owing to organic acid, and not to hy- 

 drochloric acid. — L'Institut, Juin 'JO, 1849. 



ON THE FORMATION OF FATTY MATTERS IN VEGETABLES. 



M. Blondeau de CaroUes remarks it as well known, that oleagi- 

 nous grains do not, in an early stage of their development, contain 

 any trace of fatty substances ; and that it appears evident that the 

 latter are formed from the substances originally entering into the 

 constitution of these grains. The author was desirous of determi- 

 ning which are the principles, the transformation of which gives rise 

 to the fatty bodies, and the mode in which it is effected. 



The author especially studied the formation of oil in the olive. 

 This fruit, carefully analysed, yielded scarcely an appreciable trace 

 of nitrogen ; it was not therefore owing to the presence of vegetable 

 albumen or caseine, neutral nitrogenous bodies contained in oleagi- 

 nous grains, the transformation of which, according to MM. Liebig 

 and Dumas, is sufficient to explain the formation of fatty substances. 



The elements of this transformation must then be sought for in a 

 body analogous in composition to fecula, sugar or lignin. 



The analyses of olives, at first performed in an early state, and 

 afterwards as they approached maturity, showed that in the former 

 condition they contained no trace of oil ; but that from the moment 

 at which the oil began to appear till the fruit had attained its com- 

 plete development, the proportion of tannin, and especially of lignin 

 gradually diminished as that of the oily liquid increased. 



From these circumstances the author concludes, that the formation 

 of oil in the olive is the result of the reciprocal action of tannin 

 and lignin, and experiment seemed to confirm this explanation : 

 some olives confined in a graduated receiver full of mercury disen- 

 gaged after a few days, pure carbonic acid gas, and the sides of the 

 receiver were covered with the [condensed ?] vapour of water. 



The carbonic acid was four times greater in volume than that of the 

 olives from which it was produced ; and it could be formed only at 

 the expense of the elements contained in the fruit, the external air 

 being excluded. 



The following formulae explain the phaenomena described in a 

 satisfactory manner : — 



Lignin. Tannin. Oil. Carbonic acid. Water. 



This explanation was verified by experiment. 



