Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 587 
scription of corn after remaining for some hours in a damp soil at the 
temperature of 113°Fahr., cannotbe attributed to any alteration which 
pure and damp fecula undergoes, as MM. Colin and Edwards consider. 
5th. By treating starch with sulphuric acid, according to the pro- 
cess of M. de Saussure, no crystallizable compound could be obtained. 
Having treated potatoe starch with alcoho! and water, to extract 
the chlorophylle and the matter of a waxy appearance which it con- 
tains, the author proceeded to its proximate analysis. By rubbing 
this substance with water at 32° Fahr. until nothing more could be ex- 
tracted from it, and evaporating the liquors in vacuo it left a residue 
containing ADMIRE 5... 3:26 4.42 61°71 
Amidin (soluble) .. 38:29—100- 
The part exhausted by water at 32° having been treated with boil- 
ing water, gave a liquor which by evaporation to dryness in vacuo, 
afforded Amidine (0.5.04. 5.04 60°31 
Amidin (soluble) .. 39°69—100° 
The part insoluble in boiling water amounted to 2°12 per cent. of 
the starch employed. From these experiments it appears that water 
acts equally upon starch at afreezing or a boiling temperature. Now 
as there is no known substance which by the mere action of water 
at 32° is converted in several distinct products, except very dilute 
nitrate of bismuth and other analogous products, the author concludes 
that boiling water does not convert starch into amidine and soluble 
amidin, as might be thought by the modifications that heat and water 
cause in the constitution of many products of organization. 
The above results give the following composition : 
Exterior amidin.. 2°12 
Soluble amidin .. 38°13 
Amidine........ 59:75—100° 
Several ultimate analyses of starch, of exterior and soluble ami- 
dins, dried in vacuo at 275° Fahr., and the analysis of amidine dried 
in vacuo at 239° Fahr., allow him to give the composition of these 
substances as follows: 
Starch = C!7 H'!° O'°; amidine C!° H® O¢ ; exterior amidin = so- 
luble amidin C7 H® O+, or C'7 H1o Oto = Co H> O54C7 H> O+, 
Starch = amidine + amidins. 
These atomic formularies show that starch is equal to carbon and 
water ; amidine to carbon, water, and oxygen ; and amidin to carbon, 
water, and hydrogen. M. Guérin states that diastase converts exte- 
rior and soluble amidin, when hydrated, into a substance like sugar, 
and a substance insoluble in water, not rendered blue by iodine. 
When these amidins are dried, diastase does not act upon them; 100 
parts of starch contain 1-705 parts of insoluble matter, which does 
not become blue with iodine, and which gives by analysis, 
Ist Analysis. 2nd Analysis. 
Carbon .... 47°71 47°68 
Hydrogen.. 7:09 711 
Oxygne .. 45°20—100° 45°21—100- 
These analyses compared with those of exterior amidin show the 
difference that exists between these substances; and the author is 
inclined to consider exterior amidin as an immediate principle, and 
