312 Scientific Intelligence. [Ocr. 
3. It forms with barytes, oxide of lead, and oxide of copper, salts 
which have all the properties of formates. 
What remains after the distillation in the retort, is, when tartaric 
acid has been used, tartrate and formate of manganese. If sulphuric 
acid be added, together with the black oxide of manganese, all the tar- 
taric acid is decomposed into carbonic acid, water, and formic acid, 
and a greater quantity of the latter is obtained than in the former ex- 
periment. ‘The best proportions for obtaining this acid are 78 parts of 
crystallized tartaric acid, 105 of black oxide of manganese, 115 of 
sulphuric acid, mixed with 2 or 3 parts of water. 
Prefessor Dobereiner believes, that when nitric acid acts upon 
sugar, alcohol and formic acid are formed, and he finds that the easiest 
method of ascertaining its nature is to try the effect which sulphuric 
acid, and nitrate of silver, or pernitrate of mercury, have on the acid, 
either combined with water or with bases. : 
IV. Bezoars voided by a Woman. 
The calculi called bezoars are found in the stomach and intestines 
of certain herbivorous animals, but had not been met with in those 
either of carnivorous animals or of man, until Dr. Champion, an emi- 
nent physician of Bar-le-duc, sent some for analysis to M. Henri 
Braconnot, which had frequently been voided, in a diurnal vomiting 
of blood, by an unmarried woman, whose menstruation was irregular, 
and whose urine had become much diminished in quantity before the 
evacuation of these concretions commenced. 
These bezoars have the form of crisp almonds (pralines) and are as 
large as small hazel nuts; their surface is tubercular and coloured 
brownish red by theblood. Internally they are of a yellowish white, 
inclining to fallow, and appear to consist of brilliant crystalline grains ; 
‘they do not present any concentric layers. They are usually of a close 
texture, but are sometimes cellular, like'the marrow of bones; and may 
“be cut with a knife like wood, of which they have also the aspect. 
At one of their extremities there is an infundibuliform depression, often 
filled with dried blood, which communicates with a tube extending 
throughout their length; this tube being-sometimes partially or even 
wholly filled up. Two of them had cavities in the interior, like little 
geodes, but none offered a distinct nucleus; their specific gravity was 
above that of water. 
These bezoars being boiled in water and the liquor evaporated, a 
slight residue was obtained, containing a free acid, the muriates of 
soda and potash, and a small quantity of animal matter. They were 
then treated with a solution of potash, which had little action upon 
them; a brown fluid resulted, however, in which muriatic acid occa- 
sioned aslight precipitate, that did not contain any uric acid. Every 
thing having thus been obtained from them that these solvents could 
extract, they were triturated with concentrated sulphuric acid, with 
which they produced a thick mucilage, that by solution in water and 
ebullition for some hours, was converted into sugar. 
They were not acted upon by muriatic acid ; by treatment with 
nitric acid 2 grammes of them yielded 0-4 grammes of oxalic acid, a 
small quantity of yellow bitter matter (emer), and an insoluble white 
substance resembling baked starch; this is readily soluble in am- 
