Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 77 



The fluid portion of human fat consists therefore essentially of 

 oleine, with which however a small quantity of some other fluid fat 

 is incorporated, which is distinguished from the former in that the 

 acid which it contains furnishes on saponification a baryta salt which 

 is more difficult of solution in alcohol than the oleate of baryta, but 

 on the other hand is more readily soluble in aether, and which con- 

 tains much more baryta. 



When human fat is exposed in the winter during a long period 

 to a temperature about the freezing-point, the fluid fat separated 

 from the sohd parts allowed to stand until the next winter, and 

 then again submitted for a long time to a similar low temperature, 

 a considerable portion of solid fat will again separate; and the 

 remaining fluid portion will again present the same phsenomenon in 

 the ensuing winter. This does not depend on a conversion of oleine 

 into margarine ; but Dr. Heintz found that this solid fat, purified by 

 pressure and crystaHization from alcohol, readily dissolved in a weak 

 boiling solution of carbonate of soda. Thus, if human fat be left for 

 a long time in loosely -stopped vessels, a gradual decomposition of 

 the glycerine will occur and the fatty acids of the fat be set free ; 

 these are more difficult of solution in the fluid portion than the un- 

 decomposed fat, and occasion this repeated separation. — Annalen der 

 Chemie und Pharmacie, Ixxx. 297. 



NEW ARRANGEMENT OF THE VOLTAIC PILE. 

 BY M. FABRE DE LAGRANGE. 



I have found a means of rendering the current of the voltaic pile 

 perfectly constant and invariable, even for weeks or months, of what- 

 ever metals the electrodes may be formed, and whether they be set 

 in action by two liquids, as in the combination of Bunsen, or by one, 

 as in that of Volta. This continuity of electric action is obtained in 

 the same way that we obtain the continuity of the calorific action of 

 a stove, which is furnished below with a grating to let the ashes fall, 

 whilst we continually add fuel at the top. 



The method which I employ is simple, and fulfills all the conditions 

 which can render it practicable in an industrial point of view — 

 instead of increasing the expense it diminishes it. 



Let us first see the disposition of a single pair with one liquid. 

 Take a vessel with a hole in the centre of the bottom, such as a 

 flower-pot, and round the hole let one end of a cylindrical diaphragm 

 of cloth be attached by cement to the bottom of the pot. The axis 

 of tlie hollow cloth cylinder when erect will coincide with the axis 

 of the vessel, and its height is somewhat less than the walls of the 

 latter. Within the diaphragm is placed a stick of very hard coke, 

 such as is found in the gas-retorts, surrounded by small grains of 

 the same coke, and round the diaphragm a cylinder of amalgamated 

 zinc and some acidulated water, furnished drop by drop from a reser- 

 voir above. 



Let us now unite the two poles by a conducting wire, and see 

 what takes place in the interior of the apparatus. The acidulated 

 water, which continues to drop into the vessel, will pass in part over 

 the margin of the cloth diaphragm on to the grains of coke, which 



