100 On Citric Acid. 



them from the atmosphere^ and then completing them in the hairs 

 by chemical aflBnity. 



Most of the accounts descriptive of the human body are se- 

 lected from our best surgical books ; Hunter, Haller, Monro, 

 Burk, and Cooper. I have since, however, regretted 1 did not 

 form the comparison between the insect or amphibia tribe and the 

 vegetable, as, certainly approaching nearer together, thev would 

 admit a more perfect similitude; but I was fearful the dissection 

 of the insect tribe would not be sufficiently known, to intere'>t ; — 

 or the lungs of the frog's fcetus are so like the part of the leaf 

 which serves as lungs to the plant ; and the admirable manner in 

 which the muscles of the snail display themselves, so well dis- 

 criminate its different parts of tendon, muscle or moving part, 

 and the nerve to which it is attached, as to take away all obscu- 

 rity from the subject; which is however with the least attention 

 plain enough. The inimitable Swammerdain, who studied the 

 muscles most deeply, thinks their internal motion may arise 

 from a similar cause with those of the vegetable. 

 I am, sir. 



Your obliged servant, 



Agnes Ibbetson. 



XXII. On Citric Jcid. By Samuel Parkes, FX.S.M.G.S, 



&c. 



[Concluded from p. 60. J 



J. HE juice of several other fruits, besides those of limes and le- 

 mons, will furnish the citric acid, either alone or mixed with other 

 vegetable acids. Thus the cranberry (the I'accinntm oxycoccus^ 

 of LinnaBUs), the red whortleberry [vaccinium vitis idcea), the 

 birds-cherry {pruniis padusf), the berry of the nightshade [so- 

 lanum dulcamara X), and the liep, or fruit of the wild briar (a/- 

 noshulus vel rosa cunina^), yield chiefly the citric acid ||, while 

 in the red gooseberry {ribcs grossularia), the garden currant 



* As the fruit of this sbiub is largely e.nployed in most families, some per- 

 sons may be glad to be informed that these berries may be preserved perfect for 

 several years, merely by drying them a little in the sun, and then stopping them 

 closely in dry bottles. 



■f- Although this fruit is of itself nauseous, yet when bruised and infused in 

 wine or brandy, it wives it an agreeable flavour. 



\ Linnosus says that an infusion of the young twigs of this plant is an ad- 

 mirable medicine in acute rheumatism. 



§ The pulp of the=e berries, heat up with sugar, makes the conserve of heps 

 of the pharmacopoeia. Miied with wine it is an acceptable treat in the north 

 of Europe. 



II Westrumb has shovm that tlie juice of the common cherry contains scarcely 

 any other acid than the citric. 



{riles 



