ADDITIONS AND NOTES TO VOL, I. 481 



coherent, somewhat elastic, snow-white mass, which may be 

 detached from the filter in plates or membranes ; by extension 

 and careful teasing, these delicate plates may be made to assume a 

 fibrous appearance under the microscope, not unlike that of the 

 blood-fibrin. The substance, when still moist, dissolves very 

 readily in lime-water as well as in dilute solutions of the alkalies ; 

 it coagulates from the solution in lime-water on boiling, in the 

 same manner as albumen ; it is precipitated both from this and 

 from the alkaline solutions by concentrated solutions of the 

 neutral salts of potash and soda ; the mass swells in a moderately 

 concentrated solution of carbonate of potash, becomes gelatinous 

 and dimly transparent, but does not dissolve ; it is only after very 

 considerable dilution that even a portion of the substance under- 

 goes solution. If to the alkaline solutions of this substance we 

 add chloride of calcium or sulphate of magnesia, we obtain no 

 precipitate, unless we boil the mixture; if, however, we have 

 previously boiled the alkaline solution (which at most only 

 induces a slight turbidity), the solutions of the above-mentioned 

 salts then at once induce a flocculent precipitate. Nitric acid 

 throws down a white flocculent precipitate from the alkaline 

 solutions of syntonin ; chromic acid, or acid chromate of potash 

 and hydrochloric acid, throws down this substance in flakes both 

 from alkaline and from acid solutions; pure hydrochloric acid, 

 even when added to excess, only renders the alkaline fluid 

 opalescent. I was unable to dissolve uncoagulated syntonin in 

 nitre-water (consisting of 6 parts of KO. NO 5 to 100 parts of 

 water), even after five days' digestion at 30. 



With regard to its composition, Strecker* has found in this 

 substance 1'4- of ash (from hens' flesh), 54*46 -g- of carbon (from 

 beef) and 53*67-- of carbon (from mutton), J'2J% of hydrogen, 

 15'84{f of nitrogen (from beef) and 16'26 of nitrogen (from 

 mutton), and from T02 to l'2I% of sulphur. This substance is 

 therefore sufficiently distinct in its composition from blood-fibrin. 

 My analyses of the smooth muscles of the stomach of the pig, and 

 of the middle arterial coat of the ox, agree tolerably closely with 

 the analyses of Strecker. Waltherf found rather more sulphur, 

 namely, 1'6-J. 



The preparation of this substance is best effected in the follow- 

 ing manner. We take flesh as free as possible from fat, mince it 

 finely, repeatedly stir it with water, and press it till the fluid which 



* Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 73, S. 127. ] 



t Dis?. inaug. de musculis lacvibus. Lips. 1851.'] 



VOL. TIT. 2 I 



