596 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



precisely the same constituents. They were taken from different 

 individuals at the same period of utero-gestation, viz. 7^ months; 

 their specific gravities were from 1'0086 to r007, and every speci- 

 men contained urea as an ingredient. The caseous matter, which 

 is observed floating in the liquor, has been examined by Dr. R ^ s, 

 and shown to contain cholesterine. The salts of the liquor am nii 

 are the sam? as those of the blood; the alkaline phosphate and sul- 

 phate exist however as a mere trace. We subjoin the analysis of 

 one specimen ; the others differ from it merely in proportional con- 

 stitution. 



Liquor Amnii. 

 Sp. grav. 1008, strongly alkaline, contained in 1000 parts. 



Water 984-98 



Albumen (with traces of fatty matter) 1-80 



r Salts 2-80. ^ 



_, , ^ 1,1. ^ J Organic matter, principally al- I 

 Extract soluble m water<^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^jj; ^1^^^^^^, ^ 6-02 



of soda, 3-22. J 



„ ^ ^ , , 1 . ^ f Salts 2-80. 1 



Extract soluble in water Iq^^^^j^ ^^^^^^^ principally I 7-20 

 and alcohol. ^ j^^^.^ ^^^^ . ^^^^^ J 



Chiy's Hospital Reports, Oct. 1838. 



STEAROPTEN OF TURPENTINE. 



M. Brandes remarks that crystals have often been observed in 

 rectified oil of turpentine, and these have been shown by several 

 authors to be the stearopten of turpentine ; and other chemists have 

 obtained an acid resembling succinic acid. M. Brandes also ob- 

 tained crystals from recently rectified oil of turpentine ; they were 

 collected on a filter, washed and dried; the quantity was small, 

 amounting to only about 15 grains ; they were transparent, had a 

 vitreous lustre ; some were dull ; some were isolated, and others 

 stellated ; they were small, from half a line to three lines in length, 

 and scarcely a quarter of a line thick; the form was a quadri- 

 lateral prism ; with the assistance of a glass, the base appeared evi- 

 dently to be rhombic, but differing but little from rectangular. The 

 summit was dihedral. The crystals sunk in water. 



A small quantity being heated in a globe, they readily sublimed 

 in a fine filamentous mass, and in capillary crystals, some of which 

 were more than an inch in length ; when a larger quantity was 

 heated, a portion liquefied during sublimation, and solidified on cool- 

 ing into a small cake, which being again heated, again became fluid, 

 and then sublimed without residue by the continued action of the 



heat. 



The crystals are completely soluble in hot water, and dissolve 

 also in alcohol and a;ther ; the alcoholic solution may be diluted 

 with several times its bulk of water, without becoming turbid ; oil 

 of turpentine had not so marked an action on the crystals when 

 cold as alcohol and aether, but heat caused it to dissolve them com- 

 pletely, and the solution was not rendered turbid either by cooling 



