Extracts from Berzelius's Annual Report for 1843. 197 



to the action of the air and of the sun's rays. The oil is bleached in 

 this way in ten or fifteen hours. 



Adulteration of the Volatile Oils with Alcohol— M. Lipowitz 

 (Pharm. Cent. Blatt. 1842, 415) mixes two parts of the adulterated es- 

 sence with one of a saturated solution of common salt, and agitates the 

 two together after allowing some time for the separation to take place, 

 the extent of the adulteration may be determined by what remains of 

 the essence. 



An Easy Method of preparing the Ethers of the Vegetable Acids. 

 M. Gaultin (Ann. der Chem. und Pharm. XL, iii) proposes a method 

 for preparing directly these ethers without the intervention of any min- 

 eral acid. He heats the acid in a tubulated retort to as high a temper- 

 ature as possible without decomposing or subliming it ; then lets fall 

 the alcohol drop by drop upon it ; the ether is immediately formed and 



distils over. He has experimented with oxalic, citric, succinic and ben- 

 zoic acids. 



Gouty Calculus.— M. Marchand (Journ. fur Prac. Chem. XXVI, 95) 

 has analyzed a gouty calculus formed in the articulation of the knee, 

 and found it composed as follows : 

 Lithenate of soda, - 34-20 Animal matter, - - 32-53 



Lithenate of lime, - 2-12 Water, ... - 6*80 



Carbonate of ammonia, 7-86 Loss, 2-37 



Common salt, - - . 14-12 



Mucilagenous Meteorite. — M. Mulder (Scheik Arderzock, 1st St. 

 34) has examined the mucilagenous matter that is found sometimes in 

 the morning upon the srass, the origin of which is not known. It has 

 ^en considered a tremella swollen by the dew, — also supposed to be a 

 fody thrown from some falling star. The experiments of M. Mulder 

 P"t this question beyond a doubt, in proving that it is an animal mucU 

 ,a ge, which has been swollen by water to the greatest degree, so that 

 *e solid mucilage constitutes but a very small portion of the mass. 

 " e found in it bone earth, a trace of proteine, a little lactate of soda, 

 an d common salt. The elementary analysis gave 



Carbon, . . 50-53 Nitrogen, - - 9*27 

 %drogen, - . 6-53 Oxygen, - • 3367 



As to the origin of the mucilage, M. Mulder supposes that it is a mu- 

 a S e of frog's spawn, swollen by water. 



