174 | Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
Its composition is very remarkable, for according to MM. 
Dumas and Pelletier, it consists of 
Carbon . ‘ - 46.51 
Nitrogen : . 21.54 
Hydrogen. meray: % 
Oxygen . : - 27,14 
rT 
100. 
The quantity of nitrogen in it surpasses that of most vegetable 
substances,—Ann. de Chim. xxiy. 183. 
30. Conversion of Gallic Acid into Ulmin—The following state- 
ment is by M. Doebereiner. On dissolving a determinate quan- 
tity of gallic acid in ammonia, and placing the solution in contact 
with oxygen, it absorbed sufficient to convert all the hydrogen of 
the gallic acid into water. In this way the acid became conyerted 
into ulmin, which is composed of 
1 atom .).: . 12 carbon 
#6 OSURE hydrogen 
2 - 6. oxygen 
and may be represented as a combination of two volumes of gas- 
eous oxide of carbon, and one volume of vapour of water.—Ann, 
de Chim. xxiv. 353. 
There is some mistake in the above statement of the composi- 
tion, but the fact is very curious— Ed. 
31. An Account of an Electrical Arrangement produced with dif- 
ferent Charcoals, and one conducting Fluid, communicated by Mr. T. 
Griffiths.—In the course of some experiments on charcoal, the re= 
sults of which are given in a late number of the Journal of Science, 
two specimens were obtained differing remarkably in mechanical 
texture, and electrical conducting power, but more especially in 
the former. One of them being soft and porous, absorbing water 
with great avidity; the other hard and compact, absorbing it with 
comparative slowness. I was induced from the observation of this 
fact, to try if it would be possible to form an electrical arrange- 
ment of several such pieces made into ares and plunged into 
glasses of water; supposing that the absorption of that fluid tak- 
ing place more rapidly in the one than the other, might at the’ 
time develope electricity. 
An apparatus was accordingly constructed, consisting of several 
pieces of the two charcoals united by a wire into the form ofan 
arc, and dipping at their extremities into glasses of pure water. 
Upon connecting its opposite ends with the tongue, «a perceptible 
taste was experienced similar to that produced by a very feeble 
