456 APPENDIX. 



hydrated lime in it, this may be removed by a current of carbonic 

 acid gas through it and subsequent ebullition, when the lime will 

 be thrown down as a bicarbonate. 



If the quantity of lactic acid be not too small, and if there be 

 not too much coloured extractive matter, the lactate of lime 

 usually crystallises in a few days in wart-like clusters. If, how- 

 ever, these crystals do not appear, we evaporate the whole fluid to 

 the consistence of a syrup, mix it with strong alcohol, and let it 

 stand in a cylindrical vessel, which must be placed in a moderately 

 warm situation. A resinous deposit, almost insoluble in cold 

 alcohol, and consisting of a combination of lime with extractive 

 matter, is generally soon formed. After the alcoholic solution has 

 now become clear, we pour it into a vessel with a cover, and 

 gradually add small quantities of ether. The lactate of lime, if 

 present even in mere traces, separates in the form of delicate white 

 threads and soft crystalline masses, which, after being dried upon 

 filtering paper and re-crystallised from the smallest possible 

 quantity of hot water, may be subjected to any further investi- 

 gation that may be deemed necessary. G. E. D.] 



(8) Addition to p. 93, last line. Although Schmidt long ago 

 communicated to me that in his experiments he was unable to 

 find any trace of lactic acid in the gastric juice of dogs, I have as 

 yet been unable to determine the conditions under which it occurs 

 in the gastric juice and those under which it is absent. Circum- 

 stances having prevented me from providing myself with a dog 

 with a gastric fistula, for the purpose of repeating the experi- 

 ments, I collected the gastric juice of fourteen dogs which had 

 been condemned to death by the police ; they had been fed with 

 horse-flesh some (from 8 to 16) hours before they were destroyed, 

 and a quarter of an hour before their death they were fed with 

 fatty bones. The stomachs of most of the dogs contained no 

 remains of the flesh, but merely fragments of bones. The most 

 decided evidence of the presence of lactic acid in this gastric juice 

 was obtained from the form and the characters of its salts, as well 

 as from its saturating capacity. Since, moreover, the conditions, 

 observed by Schmidt were also observed in this investigation, there 

 could be the less doubt that in this case there was present 

 not merely free hydrochloric acid, but also a considerable quantity 

 of free lactic acid. On treating the gastric juice with lime-water, 

 crystals, perfectly resembling those of lactate of lime, exhibited 

 themselves on the evaporation, in vacuo, of the portion insoluble 



