1818.] of Animal Substances. 357 



2. As urea and uric acid are the most azotized of all animal 

 substances, the secretion of urine appears to have for its object 

 the separation of the excess of azote from the blood, as respiration 

 separates from it the excess of carbon. 



3. Fats are distinguished from animal and vegetable oils by 

 having a less proportion of carbon. 



4. The composition of cetine and cholesterine will lead us to 

 class these bodies rather with wax than with fat. 



5. Fish oil has a great analogy with olive oil. . 

 M.Berard relates a remarkable experiment, in which having 



passed into a red hot porcelain tube a mixture of one volume ot 

 carbonic acid, 10 of carburetted hydrogen, and 20 of hydrogen, 

 which nearly represents the same proportion of elements as exists 

 in fat, he obtained a substance under the form of small white 

 crystals, like mother-of-pearl, brilliant, greasy to the touch, 

 lighter than water, fusible by warm water into a fat oil, and 

 soluble in alcohol. M. Berard observes that while he was 

 engaged in his experiments, he was informed by M. Saussure 

 that M. Dbbereiner had formed fat by distilling water over 

 incandescent charcoal.— (Bulletin des Sciences, August, 181/ ; 

 Ann. de Chim. et Phys. v. July, 1817.) 



On the Production of Fat. By M. Dbbereiner. 



The following is the discovery said to have been made by Prof. 

 Dbbereiner, on the production of adipose matter from inorganic 

 substances. He was engaged in a series of experiments on the 

 inflammable gas of coal mines, which he was mixing with 

 aqueous vapour in a red-hot tube of iron. He not only thus 

 obtained a large portion of carburetted hydrogen and carbonic 

 acid ; but also a considerable quantity of a substance analogous 

 to " gelatine," which, settling in the tube, at length entirely 

 obstructed it. He attempted to analyze this substance, and 

 found it to be a mixture of water and fat. The gas itself contained 

 a considerable quantity of this fat mechanically suspended ; for 

 it was only partially transparent, and had a strong smell of heated 

 tallow. It deposited, by cooling, a white adipose matter. 



This experiment of the production of artificial fat from water 

 and coal is said to have been repeated with success, and 

 M. Dbbereiner expects to be able to produce alcohol by the same 

 substances, and an analogous kind of process. The elements of 

 this combustible liquor exist in water and coal ; and the conditions 

 requisite for their combination, it is supposed, are either already 

 present, or may be easily procured. (13ibliotheque Umverselle, 

 July, 1807.) 



