Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 157 



he calls it serolin. This substance, when examined by the micro- 

 scope, appeared to be formed of small filaments, with small white 

 opake globules, which gave them the appearance of strings of 

 beads ; it fuses at about 134° Fahr. ; does not act upon test papers, 

 but, on the contrary, like cholesterine, it reddens concentrated sul- 

 phuric acid. It does not make an emulsion with cold water; and if 

 it be heated, it floats like a colourless oil on its surface. Sulphuric 

 aether dissolves it easily, even when cold ; on the contrary, alcohol 

 of 0837 dissolves a trace of it when boiling, and none when cold. 

 Heated for six hours in a solution of potash it suffered no change, 

 and muriatic acid added to the liquor produced no turbidness. 



Neither muriatic nor acetic acid, whether cold or hot, produced 

 any change in this substance : when long heated with nitric acid it 

 was not dissolved, but became soluble in a solution of potash and 

 rendered it brown. 



Distilled by the lamp in a small glass tube, it emitted a very cha- 

 racteristic odour, gave alkaline vapours and a light coaly residue : 

 part of it seemed to volatilize. The small quantity obtained did not 

 allow of performing more experiments ; but the above, M. Boudet 

 thinks sufficient to establish serolin as a new immediate principle, 

 and to justify the name which he has given it. 



The alcohol from which the serolin had been separated by the 

 filter was distilled in a salt-water bath, and when reduced to one 

 fourth of its bulk, the distillation was stopped and the liquor allowed 

 to cool. It soon became turbid, but no material deposit was formed. 



By continuing the evaporation in a capsule, a slightly yellowish 

 brown residue was obtained : it was of the consistence of turpentine, 

 and formed an emulsion with cold water. Its taste was acrid, and its 

 smell similar to that of the phosphorized fatty matter of the brain. 



This residue triturated with alcohol of sp. gr. 0-837, rendered it 

 yellow, and attached itself to a tube like a soft resin. Fresh alco- 

 hol was added until it ceased to acquire colour, and two products 

 were thus separated ; one, soluble in alcohol, was of course the oily 

 matter already alluded to, and the other was the fatty matter of the 

 brain; this was insoluble in cold alcohol, but dissolved by it when 

 boiling, and in aether, except a very small portion of a rosy matter, 

 which was too minute for examination. It crystallized in brilliant 

 laminae, did not act upon coloured test papers, was unalterable by 

 alkalies, made an emulsion with cold water; and its properties were 

 perfectly similar to the cerebral fat, as described by Vauquelin and 

 Chevreul. 



The alcoholic solution, exposed for some time to spontaneous 

 evaporation, gave small crystalline plates resembling cholesterine in 

 appearance. On comparing their properties, it was found that they 

 agreed nearly in their fusing point at about 278° of Fahr.; but they 

 differed in this respect, viz. that pure cholesterine is crystalline, 

 while this substance was in flocks, and had no crystalline splen- 

 dour : this difference, however, appeared to depend upon its re- 

 taining a little phosphorized fatty matter, the odour of which it 

 retained ; and on mixing pure cholesterine with this substance, the 



