French Xat'ional InU'nute. 57 



FRENCH SATIOXAL INSTITUTE. 

 [Continued froai oar last volume, p. 373.] 



M. Thenard, professor in the College of France, has com- 

 pletely discovered in bile a saccharine matter the existence 

 of which has been hitherto only suspected, and the properly 

 of \vhich is lo hold the oil of the bile in solution. The me- 

 thods of analvsis which he has eniploved have been remarked, 

 by the committee charged with the examination of his la- 

 bours, as singularly ingenious ; in fact, it was extremely dif- 

 ficult completely to free this substance from those which dis- 

 guised it. 



M. Seguin, a corre.-ponding meniber of the Institute, has 

 made some researches on the nature of coffee j whence it 

 results, that this grain is composed of albumen, oil, a par- 

 ticular substance which he has named the bitter principle, 

 and a green matter which is merely a combination of the al- 

 bumen with the bitter principle; that the proportions var\' 

 in the different kinds of coffee; that roasting increases the 

 proportion of the bitter principle bv destroying the albumen; 

 that these two latter principles contain plenty of azote ; and 

 that the bitter principle is aniiseptic. The oil of coffee is 

 inodorous, congelable, and white like hos's lard. 



M. Seg^v.in afjcrwards examined if albumen was not to be 

 foinid in oilier vegetables; and he discovered it, in short, in 

 a great nun-.bcr, which he specifies. The most of them also 

 contain, in certain proportions, a bitter principle, more or 

 h'S.- similar to that of coffee. 



This remarkable quantity of albumen being met with par- 

 ticularly in such vegetable juices as ferment and yield a spi- 

 rituous lifjuor by themselves without yeast, such as the juice 

 of raisins, gooseberries. Sec. &c., M. Seguin was led to 

 inquire if the albumen contributed any thing to this in- 

 testine conmiotivc fermentation, hitherto so little known. 

 He s'ale«, that baring taken the albumen from these juicts 

 they are no longer capable of fermenting ; and that having 

 made albumen artificiallv, with the white of an ejrsr and sac- 



- ' CD 



charinc matter for instance, fermentation took place, when 



olh>.T circumstances were besides convenient for it; and 



V 4 there 



