134 Chemistry and Chemical Arts. 
great value in the preservation of meats for the use of ships at sea, 
in the army, and even in domestic economy, when a method shall be 
discovered of removing from meat, the disagreeable odor which the 
creosote communicates to it. He made a great number of experi- 
ments, in order to ascertain the manner in which the creosote acts in 
preserving meats; and he concludes, that it is in coagulating the al- 
bumen, and thus hindering it from putrefying, and that the fibrine, 
when thus isolated, does not appear liable to putrefaction. 
Creosote acts as a poison upon the animal organization; put in a 
concentrated state upon the skin, it destroys the epidermis in a very 
little time. When diluted, it destroys small animals, such as fish. 
Plants die, when sprinkled with a solution of creosote. 
Physicians have been acquainted for a long time, with the medici- 
nal virtues of pyroligneous acid, the oil of Dippel, and more recent- 
ly of asubstance called agua empyreumatica. It was suspected that 
these substances owed their virtues to the presence of creosote, and 
many experiments were made in relation to the subject. It was tried 
im many inveterate cases of caries, and the experiments were crown- 
ed with the most perfect success. It therefore promises to be of 
great utility in medicine. 
It was impossible to obtain the substance perfectly anhydrous for 
analysis. It afforded in the hands of Mr. Erruine, by the process 
of combustion : 
Rarhons:>.~exe se ol FSBGE : c-arus; a TH 
Pivdteeen) «4 es: DTIB: a eos: o 
Oxygen, gi@uas 0: BGR ens ace BGAMGD 
The sample submitted to analysis would appear from the forego- 
ing, to have contained 3 per ct. of water.—Idem. 
8. To determine the Nitrogen in Organic Compounds, by Dv- 
mas. (Ann. de Ch., t. 53, p. 164.)—The following method is said 
to give the nitrogen witha precision, at least equal to that, by which 
we now obtain the quantities of carbon and hydrogen in the same 
bodies. A tube is arranged as common, taking care to place at its 
closed extremity, some grains of carbonate of lead; after having 
created the vacuum in the tube, a portion of the carbonate of lead 
is decomposed, in order to get rid of portions of air remaining in the 
tube, and to replace it by pure carbonic acid. After having disen- 
gaged rather more than a pint of carbonic acid, the vacuum is formed 
a second time, and the combustion is made as ordinary ; the gases 
