408 | 
the alkali has. The letting loose 
these volatile principles seems to 
be the beginning of putrefac- 
tion. If this be the case, we may 
see the reason why flesh, when 
growing putrid, is restored to 
sweetness by fixed air; that acid 
replacing what has escaped, and 
retaining the volatile alkali. Ir is 
probably. on this account, that the 
aerial acid is found to be: of use in 
stopping che progress of some putrid 
disorders ; it seems to act as a sort 
of pickle. If vinegar preserve flesh 
by keeping its volatile alkali united 
with this acid, which is not 
volatile, we may expect a fixed 
alkali will have a like effec in pre- 
serving flesh, by expelling the 
weaker volatile alkali, and uniting 
itself to the volatile acid, which 
will therefore be attained. This I 
found to be really the case; for, 
while the flesh and alkali were com- 
bining in the mortar, a very strong 
émell-z arose, like that of sel vclatile; 
and, at one time that I used a brass 
or metal mortar, 1 perceived its 
edges to be tinged withbloe, which 
shewed that the metal had been 
affected by the volatile alkali. 
' There seems to be a good reason 
why uxed alkaline salts should pre- 
serve flesh much longer than any 
fluid acid, such as vinegar can do ; 
for when the alkaline salt com- 
bines with the flesh, it expels what 
is volatile, the mass grows hard, 
ano 
dryness, in which no sort of fer- 
mentation, or any intestine motion 
can take place, and therefore there 
is nothing that can effeét a change 
in this compound substance. 
Whereas, whet an animal or vege- 
table substance is immersed in 
vinegar, a very heterogeneous 
mixtute is formed, which, in 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
it is easilv reduced to a state of 
1796. 
length of time, will be apt to run 
into a sort of fermentation, with 
_an intestine motion among the mi- 
nute particles ; this will bring on 
some change in the texture of the 
substance, and every fermentation, 
when long continued, ends in pu- 
trefaétion, which, indeed, is said 
to be the last stage of fermentation, 
Whether the conje‘tures I have 
offered on this subject be well or ill 
founded is but of little consequence; 
the facts I have mentioned may be 
relied on. . 
Observations on the Nature of Honey, 
particularly onits sac. harine Parts 
when obtained in a sclid Form, By 
Mr. Lowitz, of the Ocvconomical 
Society at St, Petersburg, 
I. A substance so remarkable 
and so useful as honey, ought to 
have been long since accurately 
analyzed by the chemists. Its 
saccharine taste has always led 
them to suppose that it contained a 
large quantity of sugar; but the 
great question was, how to sepa- 
rate the saccharine part from the 
mucilaginous, and other heteroge. 
negus parts. This separation was 
the principal objeét of my inguiry, 
in the experiments of which I am 
going to give some account, 
II. The property possessed by 
charcoal, of decomposing and ab. 
sorbing the mucilaginous and -phlo- 
gistic parts of various substances, 
(a discovery which I formerly made, 
and of which I then gave an ac- 
count), induced me to hope that I 
could, by its means, obtain the ob. 
ject Thad in view. I did indeed 
succeed in depriving honey, which 
had previously been dissolved in a 
sufficient quantity of water, of that 
smell 
