gh ate 
certain conditions, in soil and air destitute of ammonia and its compounds. 2. That 
urea in solution is capable of being taken unchanged into the organisms of plants. 
8. That urea need not be converted into ammonia before its nitrogen becomes avail- 
able for the purposes of vegetation. 4. That the fertilizing effects of urea are not at 
all inferior to those of the salts of ammonia. 5. That there exists no necessity for 
allowing drainings or other fertilising substances containing urea to ferment; but that, 
on the contrary, greater benefits must be derived from their application in the recent 
or unfermented condition. 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 45 
On a Method of Refining Sugar. By Professor Dauseny, M.D. F.RS. 
Dr. Daubeny gave an account of a new method of refining sugar, conducted at 
Plymouth by Mr. Oxland, and known by his name. _ [t consists in the adoption of the 
superphosphate of alumina in conjunction with animal charcoal, as a substitute for the 
albumen usually employed for that purpose. In both cases the object is to separate 
and carry down the various impurities, which colour and adulterate the pure saccha- 
rine principle, present in the syrup expressed from the cane or other vegetable which 
supplies it. As, however, bullocks’ blood is the material usually procured for the pur- 
poses of supplying the albumen, a portion of uncoagulated animal matter, together 
with certain salts, is left in the juice in the ordinary process of refining, which impairs 
its purity, and promotes its fermentation—thus occasioning a certain loss of saccha- 
rine matter to result. Nothing of the kind happens when the superphosphate is 
substituted, and so much more perfect a purification of the feculent matters, under 
such circumstances, takes place, that. several varieties of native sugar, which, from 
being very highly charged with feculent matters, would be rejected in the ordinary 
process of refining, are readily purified by this wethod. The employment of super- 
phosphate of alumina also gets rid of so much larger a proportion of the impurities 
- present in the sugar, that much less animal charcoal is subsequently required for 
effecting its complete defecation, than when bullocks’ blood has been resorted to. 
The quantity of superphosphate necessary for effecting the object is, for ordinary 
sugars, not more than twelve ounces to the ton; whereas, for the same quantity, as 
much as from one to four gallons of bullocks’ blood is found to be required. Dr. 
Daubeny suggested that this reagent might be advantageously resorted to, not only 
in the purification of sugar, but also in other processes of the laboratory, when the 
removal of foreign matters, intimately mixed with the solution of a definite compound, 
becomes a necessary preliminary to its further examination. 
On the Conversion of Paper into Parchment. 
By Professor Dauseny, M.D., F.RS. 
Dr. Daubeny exhibited some specimens of paper that had been converted into parch- 
ment. The discovery, he believed, had originated in the experiments raade in connexion 
with the manufacture of gun-cotton, as it was accidentally discovered, when dipping 
paper into nitric acid, that the same effect was not exercised upon it as upon the cotton, 
but that it was rendered tough. The alteration visible in the conversion of common 
paper into parchment after being dipped into weak sulphuric acid, is believed to be 
attributable to the substitution of an atom of water for an atom of hydrogen. 
On Hygrometers and Hygrometry, with a description of a New Modification 
of the Condenser Hygrometer and Hygroscope. By M. Donovan, 
MRA. 
Suggestions towards a more Systematic Nomenclature for Organic Bodies. 
By G. C. Foster, B.A., F.C.S. 
Classification.—The classification on which the author proposes to base a systema- 
tic nomenclature for organic compounds, is a modification of that employed by Ger- 
hardt in his ‘ Traité de Chimie Organique.’ It consists in arranging chemical sub- 
stances in a number of groups or families, the individual members of each of which 
have analogous relations to each other. The relations existing between the various 
__ groups can be most easily explained by comparing corresponding terms of each, For 
instance, assuming that each group contains a hydrocarbon analogous to olefiant gas, 
