282 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 







design being perfectly protected by the application of a solution of the 

 "water glass/' as a varnish over the surface. This may be freely washed, 

 and, if necessary, renewed from time to time. 



The same substance is the essential element in Ransome's artificial stone 

 process, and other similar processes, in which a porous standstone or lime- 

 stone is saturated with this silicate, which not only consolidates, but com- 

 bines with the lime, forming a compact mass of flinty hardness, and imper- 

 vious to atmospheric influence. 



Its solution possesses highly adhesive properties, and may be considered 

 the basis of a good cement for glass and china. By itself it holds fragments 

 with great tenacity in the cold, but yields on the application of heat. The 

 solution for this purpose must not be too strong; and if mixed, when used, 

 with a little lime, the cement is very firm. 



* 



ON ANIMAL AMMONIA, ITS FORMATION, EVOLUTION, AND OFFICE. 



The following is an abstract of a paper on the above subject, presented to 

 the British Association, 1858, by the Rev. J. B. Reade. The author, after 

 referring to the testimony of Brande and Schlossberger, as to our ignorance 

 of the cause of the coagulation of the blood, and pointing out the near ap- 

 proach to the solution of the problem by Raspail, proceeds to show that Dr. 

 Richardson, in his recent work on the subject, has the undivided and justly 

 rewarded merit of proving that coagulation proceeds solely in proportion to 

 the evolution of ammonia. With reference to his own views on the subject 

 of the paper, the author makes the following observations : Ammonia, as 

 well as fibrin, exists in the blood, and we have now sufficient, or rather 

 cumulative proof, that the necessary solution of fibrin is caused by the 

 agency of this volatile alkali. It is also equally apparent that a nice adjust- 

 ment of the quantity of this alkali is indispensable; since an excess, operat- 

 ing beyond the production of fluidity, would tend to dissolve the blood cor- 

 puscles themselves, and a defect would be marked by the deposition of fibrin 

 in the heart or arteries. But though ammonia is formed, and that in larger 

 quantities than is required for its primary office and operation, viz., the solu- 

 tion of fibrin, yet the excess is with great care drawn away from the blood 

 and used where nature requires it. As a gentle stimulant, its presence is re- 

 quired throughout the whole system, and accordingly it enters, along with 

 fibrin, into the formation of muscular tissues. This I showed many years 

 ago, in a paper read before the Microscopical Society of London. It is true 

 that my experiments on the presence of ammonia, quasi ammonia, in breath, 

 flesh, and animal tissues generally, were received with much caution, or, 

 rather, I may say, with hesitation and doubt, and even ocular demonstration 

 failed, for a time, to remove foregone conclusions ; but the existence of am- 

 monia as a normal excrete of the body, is now recognized by all parties as 

 an important and undisputed fact, and its power and office as a solvent of 

 the fibrin of the blood, is exactly determined. The primary source and for- 

 mation of this alkaline solvent, or what leads to its normal development, is 

 a physiological problem yet unsolved. Its elements are well known ; but 

 whence derived, or how, or in what part of the body, if in it at all, the 

 chemical combination is effected, are questions which are supposed to point 

 to additional illustrations of the limit of human investigation and reason. 

 Yet that it is absolutely within the body that the formation of the alkaline 

 compound takes place, appears to be capable of proof. For it is quite certain, 



