AT 
hydrochloric acids gives a brown, flaky precipitate of ulmie acid, which, 
being dried at 195°, is found to have the formula C* H" O”, , 
When the mixture of sugar, water, and sulphuric acid is heated in a 
vacuum instead of under atmospheric pressure, a new compound is 
formed, which M. Mulder calls humate of humine. By acting upon 
this substance with a dilute solution of potash he separated the neutral 
body humine, which has for its formula C® H® O”, Humine is evidently 
derived from ulmine by oxidation, one equivalent of hydrogen having 
been taken from ulmine and replaced in humine by one equivalent of 
oxygen. Anhydrous humic acid has for its formula C* H” QO}, 
Under the influence of an excess of acid the preceding substances are 
changed into a black compound, insoluble in alkalies, the formula of 
which is C* H® O°, 
The compounds above described, treated with a current of chlorine in 
the presence of water, form a chloridized acid which is represented by 
the formula C” H” ClO" HO, which M. Mulder named chlorohumie acid. 
Humate of ammonia, treated with chlorine, yields a compound still more 
highly chloridized, having the formula C? H” CP O®, 
According to M. Mulder, the black acids which are found in peat, 
in rotten moss, and in arable soils, are identical with ulmic and humic 
acids, which, in those circumstances, are combined with variable quan- 
tities of ammonia. 
M. Mulder extracted from mold two acids in particular—crenie (C* H® 
O**) acid and apocrenic (C*® H” O*) acid—which bad been discovered 
by Berzelius in the waters of Porta, in Sweden, and in the ochreous 
deposits which furnish ferruginous waters. 
Tobacco which has undergone fermentation for eighteen months—that 
used for making snuff, for example—contaius a considerable quantity of 
a black acid which has not as yet been sufficiently studied, but which 
strongly resembles humic and ulmic acids in many of its properties. 
We see then, to sum up, that these black substances result from the 
decomposition of neutral substances under the influence of acids and 
alkalies, or by the action of the air or heat. They may be neutral or acid. 
They frequently contain hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion in 
which those elements unite to form water. Those of them which com- 
bine with bases are to be considered as very feeble acids which always 
form, with alkaline bases, colored and unecrystallizable salts. These 
acids, in their general properties, present a certain analogy to the resins. 
By acting on glucose with ammonia, either at 100° and at the ordi- 
nary pressure, or in closed tubes and at different’temperatures, M. P. 
Thenard obtained brown substances soluble in water and in alkaline 
solutions, and which contain at least 10 per cent. nitrogen. 
Dextrine, gum, starch, and cotton, treated with ammonia, gave M. 
Schiitzenberger analogous results. Thus gum, heated with ammonia in 
a closed tube for forty-eight hours, gave a residue containing from 2.5 
per cent. to 3 per cent. nitrogen. Dextrine, heated under the same con- 
ditions for one hundred and sixty-eight hours, gave a substance which 
contained 11.5 per cent. nitrogen.—Peluze and Frémy. 
As the successful cultivation of the cranberry depends much on the 
condition of the peaty matters of the bog-land used, it is imperative 
on those who desire to become successful growers to make themselves. 
thoroughly acquainted with the chemical properties of peat. Many sup- 
pose that itis necessary to have the roots of the eranberry-plant im- 
bedded in peat, losing sight of the fact that soluble and colorless fertil- 
izing compounds are formed from the decomposition of woody or peaty 
matters which are easily conveyed through sand to the roots. 
