■ ALGM. 635 



A L GiE. 



GELIDIUM CARTILAGINEUM, GmiL 



GELIDIUM CORNEUM, !«;«. 



'Vernacular. — Chini-gli^fi (Ind. Bazars)., 



History, Uses, &C. — This substance, called Yang-tsai 

 b)^ die Chinese, ^ud known in Europe as Mousse de Chine, 

 Agar-agar, Thaa, or Japanese Isinglass, is prepared from the 

 two species of (xelidium placed at the head of this article, and 



also probably from Sph(Brococeus compre^sus, Ag, , and 



Ao 



ai 



p. 508) gives tte following account of it :— " Under the incorrect 

 aame of J'apanese isinglass, there has been lately imported into 

 lioudou from. Japan, a quantity of a substance having the form 

 of corepressed, irregularly four-sided sticks, apparently 

 composed of shrivelled, serai-transparent, yellowish- white 

 membrane; they are eleven inches long by from 1 to H inches 

 broad, full of cavities, very light (each weighing about 

 ^ draehmg), rather flexible but easily broken, and devoid of taste 

 and smell Treated with cold water, a «tiek increases greatly 

 in volume, becoming a quadrangular, spongy bar, with some- 

 what concave sides li inches wide. Though not soluble in 

 cold water to any important extent, the substance dissolves ^ for 

 the most part when boiled for some time, and the solution, 

 even though dilute, gelatinizes upon cooling. The substance 

 under notice is used by Europeans in China as a substitute for 

 true isinglass, for which many of its properties render it highly 

 efficient. That which is perhaps most distinctive is its power 

 of combining with a very large proportion of water to form 

 a jelly. This property is due to the principle named by 

 K Payen Gelose, of which the Japanese soa- weed product mainly 

 consists. The jelly formed by boiling this sea- weed product or 

 crude Gelose in water, and allowing the solution to cool, 

 i'equixes a high temperature for fusion, differing in this respect 



