578 Chronicles of Science. [ Oct., 
the manufacture, we may direct the reader’s attention to the original 
memoir, which will be found in the ‘Annales de Physique et de 
Chimie’ for June, 1866, or to a full abstract in the ‘ Chemical 
News,’ Nos. 345, 347, and 348. The most important point brought 
out by the elaborate researches of the author is the necessity for 
rapidly lixiviating the ash, and the great desideratum of the manu- 
facture at present is a system of apparatus to accomplish this. — 
Mr.: Walter Weldon has devised and patented a process intended 
to supersede Leblane’s ; but we are not aware that its practicability 
on a large scale has yet been demonstrated. The chemistry of the 
process is very simple. The inventor places in a vessel capable of 
withstanding great pressure an equivalent of common salt and an 
equivalent of carbonate of magnesia together with a little water. 
Carbonic acid gas, obtained by the cheapest means, is then forced 
in, to convert the carbonate into bicarbonate of magnesia. ‘The 
solution of this salt, it is said, decomposes the chloride of sodium, 
producing bicarbonate of soda, which is precipitated, and chloride of 
magnesium, which remains in solution. A very moderate tem- 
perature will, of course, reduce the bicarbonate to carbonate of soda. 
The solution of chloride of magnesium is evaporated to dryness and 
the residue ignited, whereby the chlorine is driven off and magnesia 
left for another operation. . 
A very important contribution to Physiological Chemistry has 
been made by M. Melsens. It is well known that chlorate of 
potassium and iodide of potassium do not react on each other when 
brought together under ordinary circumstances, and that either 
may be administered to an animal without producing any toxic 
effect. But when these two salts are administered together the 
author finds that iodate of potash is formed in the body and the 
animal is poisoned. 
The various albumenoid bodies of both animal and vegetable 
origin have undergone a tolerably complete investigation by Dr. 
A. Commaille, of whose thesis a full abstract is published in the 
‘Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie’ for August. The author’s © 
researches, and indeed those of other chemists, on white of egg 
seem to prove that sulphur is not an essential constituent of the 
albumen, but is contained in a volatile principle perfectly distinct. 
However that may be, it is shown that the sulphur is set free when 
the albumen is coagulated by heat. Raw white of egg has no action 
on silver, which is blackened, and indeed corroded, by contact with 
the coagulated albumen. 
In the gluten of wheat the author finds as many as five 
distinct nitrogenized principles, in the blood three, and in milk 
also three. “The land of protein bodies,” it has been said, “is 
a land full of undefined shapes which only here and there presenta. 
well-marked form, and their investigation constitutes a series of 
