109 



have found that Ugnin is the substance which produces this com- 

 pound, and that it may be obtained from the lignin of any vegetable. 

 It is not xyloidine, which is a compound pecuHar to starch alone. I 

 liave prepared it, for example, from the sphagnum palustre, which 

 had been previously treated with potash ; and, best of all, from de- 

 cayed wood (also after treatment with potash), which will probably 

 form the cheapest raw material for its preparation, especially in a 

 country so rich in forests and half-rotten saw-dust as ours is. Rein- 

 deer moss and Iceland moss aftbrd only xyloidine when treated with 

 nitric acid. 



" I consider the gun-cotton to be a sort of nitrate of lignin, and the 

 products of its explosion contain much cyanogen ; so that its consti- 

 tution must be such, that the nitric acid may exactly suffice to form 

 carbonic acid and cyanogen, with the carbon = 2 NO5 -|- Cg, toge- 

 ther with HO, in a hitherto undetermined quantity." 



The following Donations to the Library were announced : — 



Journal of the Statistical Society of London. Vol. IX., Part 4. — 

 Sy the Society. 



Elements of Chemistry. By the late Edward Turner, M.D. Edited 

 by Baron Liebig and William Gregory, M.D. Part 1. — By 

 Messrs Taylor and Walton. 



Magnetical and Meterological Observations made at Washington, 

 under orders of the Hon. Secretary of the Navy, dated Aug. 

 13, 1838. 



Astronomical Observations made at the Naval Observatory, Wash- 

 ington, under orders of the Hon. Secretary of the Navy, dated 

 Aug. 13, 1838. — By Lieutenant Gillis. 



Irish Ordnance Survey Maps — County Kerry. — By the Lord Lieu- 

 tenant of Ireland. 



Memoires de I'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St Petersbourg. 

 (Sciences Mathematiques, &c.) Tome IV., Liv'® 2. 



Memoires de I'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St Petersbourg. 

 (Sciences Naturelles.) Tome V., Liv'"'^" 3, 4. 



Memoires de I'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St Petersbourg. 

 (Memoires Presentes par divers Savants.) Tome V. et Tome 

 VI., Liv'*" 1. — By the Imperial Academy. 



