288 On the Anah/sh of 



212° and 320° in which the water carries over an appretiable 

 portion of animal matter, detected not only by the smell, but 

 by the action of the above-mentioned metallic solutions. 



600 grains of the same veal were placed in a small glass 

 basin under the receiver of an air-pump, including a circular 

 surface of sulphuric acid of one foot diameter ; during the ex- 

 haustion the meat increased in bulk from the evolution of air 

 bubbles, but soon shrunk again, and in two hours appeared per- 

 fectly dry ; it was removed, and being weighed was found to 

 have lost 370 grains, so that the loss fell short of that occasioned 

 by desiccation in the atmosphere at 212° by 5 grains only, or 

 1 per cent. These comparative experiments were frequently 

 repeated with similar results, the desiccation at low tempera- 

 tures in vacuo always proving nearly equal to that at high tem- 

 peratures in the air ; and being effected without any risk of de- 

 composition, the former process was preferred to the latter. 



To determine the relative proportions of gelatine and albumen 

 in the dried fibre, it was coarsely powdered and digested in re- 

 peated portions of warm and ultimately of boiling distilled water 

 until the residue was no longer acted upon ; it was then collected 

 upon a filter, and dried as before ; the loss of weight indicated that 

 of the matter soluble in boiling water, and which consisted almost 

 entirely of gelatine: a very small portion of fat was sometimes ob- 

 served upon some of these solutions, but where care was taken to 

 operate upon perfectly lean muscular fibre no fat was detected in 

 the water employed for separating the gelatinous portion. 



The results of a few of these experiments are thrown together 

 in the following table ; they show the quantity of real nutritive 

 matter contained in 100 parts of difFerent fibres, and which, 

 ■when care was taken to exclude adhering substances, was found 

 to vary very little in the different muscles ; they also show the 

 proportion of nutritive matter soluble in water, and removed by 

 the process of boiling at 212°. 



