Chemical Science. 385 



heated, to separate the elaine from the soap of stearine; is 

 passed through a cloth, and, finally, the elaine separated from 

 the excess of alkaline solution, by decantation. This process 

 is successful with all oils, except those which are rancid, or 

 have been altered by fire. The elaine is perfectly identical with 

 that obtained by the processes of MM. Chevreul and Braconnot. 

 Ann. de Chim. xxii. 



21. On the Clarification of IFme.— There is sold in France, and 

 at a very high price, relative to its value, a reddish- brovyn 

 powder for clarifying wines. It is prescribed, in employing it, 

 to put into a vessel the quantity of water or wine, which is usually 

 mixed with whites of eggs, to sprinkle gently the powder on the 

 liquid ; and, when it is well mingled, to pour the mixture mto a 

 cask, finishing the operation in the usual way. M. Gay-Lussac 

 says, that the clarifying-powder is nothing but dried blood, and 

 that he has prepared some with particular care in the desicca- 

 tion, which was even superior to that on sale. The whites of 

 two'eo-gs contain as much albumen (which is the sole clarifying 

 principTe) as the dose of powder prescribed for the clarification 

 of a cask of two hundred litres. It will be found more beneficial 

 to make use of the whiteof egg,— both in reference to econonny, 

 and to that of the bad odour of glue possessed by the solution 

 of dried blood, which might affect the flavour of fine wines. 

 M. Gay-Lusssc has prepared a powder, with the whites of eggs 

 dried, which has not the same inconveniences as blood, which 

 mixes easily with water, and clarifies very well. 



III. Natural History. 



1 Blumenbach on Irritability of the Tongue.— I had the tongue 

 of a four year old ox which had been killed in the common 

 way, by opening the large vessels of the neck, cut out in my 

 presence while yet warm, and at the same time the heart, m 

 order that I might compare the oscillatory motion of this organ, 

 which is by far the most irritable that we are acquainted with, 

 with the motion of the tongue; and, when I excited both 

 viscera at the same time, by the same mechamcal stimuli, 

 namely, incisions with a knife and pricks of a needle, he 

 divided tongue appeared to all the bystanders to survive the 

 heart more than seven minutes, and to retain the oscillation of 

 its fibres altogether for a quarter of an hour ; and so vivid were 

 the movements when I cut across the fore part of the tongue, 

 that the butcher's wife compared them to those of an eel m 

 similar condition, quite in the way that Ovid has compared 

 them to the motions of the tail of a mutilated snake.— i:diw. 

 Phil. Jour. VIII. 263. 



2 C 2 



