1818.] the Commencement of the Year 1817. Part I. 41 



Urate of potash is composed of 



Uric acid 70-11 100-00 14-074 



Potash 29.89 42-63 6-00 



100-00 



(Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. v. 290.) 



Dr. Prouthas subjected urea, sugar, and uric acid, to analy- 

 sis in the same manner as Berard. From the great degree of 

 precision with which he makes all his experiments, and their very 

 frequent repetition, in the present case I am disposed to place 

 very great confidence in their accuracy. A full detail of these 

 experiments has been inserted in the Annals of Philosophy^ 

 ix. 352. 



Berard has made a very curious experiment. He mixed toge- 

 ther 



1 volume carbonic acid, 

 10 volumes carbureted hydrogen, 

 20 volumes hydrogen, 



which nearly represent the elements of fat, and passed the mix- 

 ture through a red-hot porcelain tube. He obtained a substance 

 in small white crystals, lighter than water, soluble in alcohol, 

 and fusible by heat into a substance similar to fixed oil. Dobe- 

 reiner, also, by mixing coal gas and aqueous vapour in a red-hot 

 iron tube is said to have produced a substance similar to fat. 



3. Cetine. — This is the name which Chevruel has given to the 

 substance known in commerce by the name of spermaceti. He 

 has published a new memoir on the subject, in which he has 

 altered some of his former opinions ; but as I have hitherto seen 

 only a part of this memoir, 1 think it better to defer this subject 

 till our next historical sketch. 



4. Conversion of Animal Bodies into Fat. — M. Gay-Lussac 

 has announced it as his opinion that the apparent conversion of 

 animal bodies into fat is merely a deception ; and is nothing else 

 than the wasting away of the muscular fibres while the fat 

 remains. He states some experiments which corroborate this 

 opinion. Fibrin of blood was kept in water renewed once every 

 two or three days for three months. It was all wasted away, 

 and no fat whatever remained. Muscle of beef and liver being 

 treated in the same way, some fatty matter remained (Ann. de 

 Chim. etde Phys. iv. 71). I have little doubt, notwithstanding 

 these experiments, that in certain cases, at least, something more 

 happens than mere putrefaction. A remarkable example occur- 

 red to me last winter. About the year 1684, a poor woman was 

 drowned in a moss in Ayrshire, as she was going to visit her 

 friends. She was carried to the neighbouring church-yard to be 



