328 SOLID PARTS OF ANIMALS. 



It was white, and composed of fibre, and resembled exactly in 

 appearance the fibrin of the blood. When dried it became yel- 

 low and translucent. Ether dissolved from it a fatty matter, 

 which Berzelius considered as a mixture of stearin and elain. 

 Water softened it, and restored its original appearance. When 

 long boiled, it contracted and became hard. Water scarcely dis- 

 solved anything from it. Concentrated sulphuric acid neither 

 dissolved nor decomposed it, nor did it reduce it to a jelly as it 

 does fibrin. Nitric acid of specific gravity 1-12 dissolved it when 

 assisted by heat, but without decomposing it. A few colourless 

 flocks remained undissolved. The solution was pale-yellow, and 

 when saturated with ammonia became deep-yellow, but no preci- 

 pitate fell. It was neither precipitated by prussiate of potash nor 

 by infusion of nut-galls. Concentrated muriatic acid seems at 

 first sight not to attack the solid matter of the kidney, but it gra- 

 dually assumes a violet colour, and in the course of a few days 

 dissolves the whole of it without the assistance of heat. The so- 

 lution was not precipitated by prussiate of potash, nor by ammo- 

 nia. When saturated by ammonia and evaporated to dryness, 

 the residue redissolved both in water and alcohol. It was not 

 rendered gelatinous by concentrated acetic acid. But when di- 

 gested in dilute acetic acid, it was divided into two substances, 

 one of which dissolved in the acid, while the other remained per- 

 fectly insoluble. 



The solution being evaporated to dryness, left a colourless and 

 translucent residue. It dissolved in a little cold water, and the 

 solution in forty-eight hours assumed the form of a jelly, which 

 dissolved in water, leaving a mucilaginous matter, which dissolv- 

 ed also when the water was heated. But it was again deposited 

 when the water cooled. The solution did not react as an acid, 

 and had neither colour, taste, nor smell. It was not precipitated 

 by prussiate of potash nor by acetate of lead, diacetate of lead, 

 nor by corrosive sublimate. But infusion of nut-galls threw it 

 down in large detached flocks, which did not unite into a cohe- 

 rent mass when heated. 



Caustic ammonia decomposed the solid residue from the kid- 

 ney, as well as acetic acid. What the alkali had dissolved re- 

 mained, after the evaporation of the liquor, under the form of a 

 colourless mass ; and contained a matter soluble only in hot 

 water, in greater quantity than existed in the acetic acid solution. 



