312 SIXTH REPORT — 1836. 



zones, in parallel fibres, and pendent in a stalactitical form 

 from caverns. 



With respect to colour, glairine is of various shades of either 

 white or red, the latter being found generally in the hottest 

 springs. 



It gives out a mawkish smell, succeeded after a little time by 

 one of a more repulsive kind, arising from its decomposition. 

 In its chemical properties it bears most resemblance to animal 

 mucus, and disengages azote when acted upon by nitric acid. 

 M. Anglada afterwards shows that the thermal waters which de- 

 posit glairine, also contain a portion of the same in a state of 

 chemical combination, the largest quantity, however, present 

 not exceeding one third of a grain to the pint. 



As the water cools, a portion of this matter separates, and 

 may then sometimes be perceived floating in it in minute semi- 

 transparent flocks of a mucous character. 

 Accounted It is this latter circumstance, which principally leads him to 

 for. suppose, that the glairine existsformed in the interior of the earth, 



and that the mineral water is merely instrumental in bringuig it 

 to the surface. 



In order to explain how such a product could arise, Anglada 

 appeals to an experiment of Dobereiner's, who found, that 

 when steam was passed through an iron tube containing heated 

 charcoal, a gelatinous matter frequently made its appearance. 

 He also notices the production of a fatty-looking substance by 

 Berard, on passing through a red-hot tube a mixture of carbonic 

 acid, olefiant gas, and simple hydrogen. 



It is with great diffidence that I dissent from the views of 

 M. Anglada, who has undoubtedly paid more attention to this 

 remarkable substance than any other individual that could be 

 mentioned, and question the fact which he so confidently affirms, 

 of the occurrence of specimens of glairine in the Pyrenean 

 springs and elsewhere, to which it would be impossible to assign 

 an organic origin f- 



* Vol. xiii. part i. 



t In further corroboration of my views I may quote the authority of the 

 naturalist Turpin, who has also examined two sjieciraens of the so-called 

 Baregine, the one from Barege, the other from Neris. An investigation of 

 them under the microscope proved, that chemists had been confounding under 

 the same name, several very different organic products, and that the so- 

 called Baregine from Neris had no resemblance in its origin or constitution to 

 that from Barege. 



The former, which he obtained from Robiquet, was nothing else than the 

 Nosthoc or Conferva thermalis, already so often described. That from 

 Barege, which he got from Longchamp, consisted of a gelatinous transparent 

 and almost colourless substance, without any apparent mark of organiza- 



