114 NERVOUS TISSUE. 



was combined here with soda and lime ; this soap was next dis- 

 solved in boiling anhydrous alcohol, and decomposed with a few 

 drops of sulphuric acid. After the sulphates (which contained a 

 little coagulated albumen mixed with them) had been removed by 

 filtration, the hot solution was allowed to cool ; from this the cere- 

 brie acid separated itself, mixed with a little oleophosphoric acid, 

 which latter substance was removed by means of cold ether, and 

 the cerebric acid once more crystallized in hot ether. 



This substance, which Gobley thinks he has also found in the 

 fat of the yolk of egg, forms a glistening white powder, which is 

 insoluble in cold alcohol and ether, but dissolves in both upon 

 boiling. The white granules swell in water. This acid combines 

 with most bases and forms salts, which are perfectly insoluble in 

 water. Fremy found in the dried baryta salt 7*8$ of baryta ; in 

 100 parts of the acid, according to separate determinations, 66*7 

 of carbon, 10*6| of hydrogen, 2'3 of nitrogen, and finally 0'9 

 of phosphorus. The quantity of oxygen must, therefore, have 

 amounted to about 19*5, whilst the saturating capacity was about 

 0-884. 



Fremy's oleophosphoric acid has been examined even less 

 accurately than cerebric acid. He obtained it t>y treating the 

 ether-extract of the brain, from which the cerebric acid had 

 been deposited, with cold ether. It remained combined with soda 

 after the ether had been removed by distillation, and presented the 

 appearance of a viscid mass. It appears to be separable from the 

 base by washing with a dilute acid. When isolated, it forms a 

 yellowish viscid mass, which is inflammable, and leaves a bulky 

 carbonaceous residue, from which phosphoric acid may be extracted 

 by water; it is insoluble in water and in cold alcohol; but dis- 

 solves in hot alcohol as well as in cold and hot ether. If this acid 

 is boiled with alcoholic solutions of mineral acids or alkalies it is 

 decomposed, according to Fremy, into olein, and oleic and phos- 

 phoric acids. Although Chevreul conjectured that the brain-fat 

 might be a combination of olein and phosphoric acid, such a 

 decomposition of oleophosphoric acid is somewhat remarkable, 

 considering our present views of the decomposition of the fats ; and 

 indeed, Gobley believes that he has found that oleophosphoric 

 acid yields only oleic acid and phosphate of glycerine, and not olein, 

 during the decomposition which it undergoes during the putrefac- 

 tion of the brain. This question does not, however, admit of a 

 ready solution, since it is very difficult altogether to free the sub- 

 stance which Fremy terms oleophosphoric acid from the olein and 



