252 CHEMISTRY. 



ments, combined in the same proportions, but whose atoms are dif- 

 ferently arranged. Changes the most singular have been found to be 

 readily effected in organic substances, such, for instance, as the con- 

 version of saw-dust into gum, sugar, acetic, formic, and oxalic acids, 

 and alcohol. Vegetable alkalies have been discovered, containing, in 

 a few grains, the active principle of considerable quantities of the 

 most powerful drugs ; some of them so potent as to extinguish life 

 in doses almost infinitessimal : while every new discovery, instead 

 of narrowing the field for exertion, opens to the view new paths for 

 investigation. 



On reflecting upon these extraordinary discoveries, we cannot 

 contemplate without pleasure the amount of talent employed in fur- 

 thering the progress of the science, nor feel surprised at the popular 

 interest which it has excited; and it is our intention, in future 

 numbers of The Analyst^ to report the recent discoveries which are 

 made in the science, and the improvements effected in the arts 

 dependant upon it, both in this country and upon the continent ; 

 occasionally to furnish sketches of the manufactures immediately 

 connected with it, and our readers will, we trust, sometimes permit 

 us to insert papers more strictly scientific. As this paper has 

 already extended to a considerable length, we can at present merely 

 notice the discovery of another of those active vegetable principles, 

 which every fresh analysis of plants brings to light. 



This substance which has been termed Diatase** by its discoverers, 

 M3I. Pay en and Persoz, occurs in barley which has just begun to 

 vegetate. It has little or no action upon any organic matter, 

 excepting starch, upon which it is so considerable as to render 2^000 

 times its weight of the latter soluble in four times as much warm wa- 

 ter. If the proportion of the diatase be increased to about one two- 

 hundredth of the weight of the starch, and the whole heated to a 

 temperature less than that of boiling, it will be found that the starch 



• Diatase is procured by bruising in a mortar fresh sprouted barley, mois- 

 tening it with naif its weight of water, and submitting it to pressure. The 

 liquid which separates, is mixed with a sufficient quantity of alcohol to de- 

 stroy its viscidity and precipitate the azotized matter, which is separated by 

 filtration. The iiltered solution, precipitated by alcohol, affords impure dia- 

 tase ; which is purified by three additional solutions and precipitations. It 

 is then collected on a filtre, dried on plates of glass, and kept m well-closed 

 Tiab.^See Records of Science, 



