392 LIQUID PARTS OF ANIMALS. 



CHAPTER III. 



OF THE LIQUID OF RANULA. 



THE term ranula is applied by French medical men to a soft 

 whitish oblong indolent tumour, situated under the tongue, near 

 the anterior ligament. This tumour is occasioned by the reten- 

 tion and accumulation of the saliva in the excretory ducts of the 

 maxillary and sometimes of the sublingual glands. As this li- 

 quid consists of altered saliva, it will be proper to give an ac- 

 count of it here. The only modern chemist who has examined 

 this liquid is M. Leopold Gmelin of Heidelberg.* It was ex- 

 tracted from a tumour of ten years standing. The liquid was 

 thick and adhesive like white of egg. It had a yellow colour, 

 was muddy, and reddened litmus-paper. 



A portion of it was mixed with four times its bulk of water. 

 At first it did not seem soluble, but by long agitation it dissolv- 

 ed with the exception of a few very fine flocks. They were sepa- 

 rated by the filter, but were so few that they could not be per- 

 ceived when the filter was dried. The colourless solution froth- 

 ed strongly when agitated, was still gelatinous, and when mixed 

 with muriatic acid, gave, after some time, a copious white preci- 

 pitate. With nitric acid it gave a yellow precipitate. With al- 

 cohol, thick white flocks, and with tincture of nut-galls, cheesy 

 brown-yellow flocks. By potash it was not altered. 



The greatest part of the liquid, amounting to 4-132 grammes, 

 was evaporated to dryness over the water-bath. By the action of 

 a boiling temperature it was white, almost opaque and cohered 

 into one mass. It weighed 0*223 gramme, or 5-4 per cent. It 

 was softened by water and then washed on the filter. 



The aqueous liquid when evaporated left a minute quantity of 

 brownish yellow residue, which was deliquescent. It was treated 

 with alcohol, which dissolved a trace of yellowish-brown deli- 

 quescent abstract. Its solution in water gave, with acetate of 

 lead, white flocks, and with tincture of nut-galls, brown flocks, 

 and with nitrate of silver, a caseous precipitate. Perchloride of 

 iron gave a deep reddish-yellow colour, destroyed by dilute mu- 

 riatic acid. Hence it did not proceed from sulphocyanic acid. 



* Ann. der Pharm. xxxi. 95. 



