SACLACT1C ACID. 145 



ing liquid to too high a temperature ; for the 

 saclactic acid is very easily rendered brown, in- 

 dicating the looseness with which its elements 

 are combined. The saclactic acid from sugar of 

 milk is quite pure as at first prepared. 



Saclactic acid has a fine white colour when 

 dried in a temperature sufficiently low. Its 

 taste is only slightly acidulous, but it acts power- 

 fully on vegetable blues, reddening them with 

 considerable energy. It is but little soluble in 

 water, though boiling water dissolves a greater 

 portion than cold water ; and if a saturated 

 solution of this acid in boiling water be set aside, 

 the greatest part of the acid is deposited as 

 the water cools in the state of small crystals. 



1. To determine the atomic weight of this 



of soda ana- 

 aCld, I employed saclactate of soda ; a salt lyzed. 



which I formed by saturating sesquicarbonate of 

 soda with saclactic acid. The acid dissolved in 

 the liquid with effervescence, and I continued to 

 add new portions of the acid till the efferves- 

 cence was at an end. The liquid was then passed 

 through a filter, to separate a portion of undis- 

 solved acid. Being left for twenty-four hours, 

 it had deposited an additional portion of sac- 

 lactic acid, yet it still reddened vegetable blues. 

 Being gently evaporated to dryness, it deposited 

 the saclactate of soda in white semitransparent 

 crystals, consisting of four-sided rectangular 

 prisms with square bases. The taste of this salt 



VOL. II. K 



