376 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



denial of the latter is not at all invalidated by the truth of the 

 former. 



8. On a particular Substance from the Thermal Wafers of 

 Tschia. — Extract from a Letter from Sig. Carlo di Gimbernat, 

 Counsellor of Legation, Sj-c, to Count Moscati, at Milan, dated 

 Naples, Feb. 4, 1819. 



" The bottle received with this sheet, contains the substance 

 which isformedby the vapours of the thermal waters of Ischia,and 

 which I discovered last October. It is perfectly identical with that 

 I found at Baden. This substance covers like an integument many 

 rocks in the valleys of Senagalla and Negroponte, at the foot 

 of the famous mountain Epomeo, beneath which the poets con- 

 fine Typhon ; and it is curious to find, exactly in this place, a 

 substance very similar to skin and human flesh *. One part of 

 the mountain, covered with this substance, was found, on mea- 

 surement, to be forty-five feet long, and twenly-four feet high. 

 The trials I have made to ascertain its nature, gave me, by dis- 

 tillation, an empyreumatic oil ; and, by boiling, a gelatine, 

 with which paper might be sized. These results are the same 

 as those I obtained at Baden, and appear to me to characterize 

 Jts animal nature. The presence, therefore, of an animal prin- 

 ciple in thermal waters is confirmed, which being volatilized 

 by heat, is found near the sources in those places where the va- 

 pours, by the concurrence of favourable circumstances, are 

 condensed and deposited. This principle I have called 

 Zoogene." 



g. On Gluten, and its Action on Guaiacjini. — The following 

 observations are contained in a Letter from the Marquis Ridolfi 

 to Dr. Brugnatelli : — 



* The Editors of the Ciornale di Ftsica, from whence this extract is 

 taken, state, that they have seen the substance obtained by M. Gimber- 

 nat, and that they can assure (their readers) that when observed exter- 

 nally, it appears like true flesh, covered with skin. They refer also to 

 JBreislak's t^'oyages, S^-c, where there is an account of a substance, col- 

 lected by M. Pilhes, from the mineral waters of Aix and Ussat, and which 

 wa* analyizcd by Vauquelin. It had many analogies with albumen and 

 niucila£;in()us matter. — Cinrnnle di Fisica, 11. p. 178. 



