118 



CHEMISTRY. 



may be conveniently determined in this way, 

 are antimony, tin, cadmium, and iron. 



A question has arisen in the examination of 

 the various processes for the analysis of water, 

 whether a loss of volatile organic matter may 

 not occur during the evaporation and boiling 

 which are necessary, particularly in the ammo- 

 nia process. Mr. Charles W. Marsh has made 

 experiments to determine this question, to which 

 attention was more strongly directed, while the 

 investigations were going on, by the observa- 

 tion by Prof. Ira Remsen of such a loss in his 

 analysis of the Farm-pond water of Boston. 

 Out of twenty- six analyses which he performed 

 for this purpose by the Wanklyn process, the 

 sum of the free and the albuminoid ammonias 

 was equal to the u total ammonia " in only 

 four. In one of the four the sum apparently 

 exceeded the "total," betraying probably a 

 slight error in the estimation. These results 

 prove that something in the water escapes con- 

 version into ammonia. To determine whether 

 this was something that escaped condensation, 

 or something that would be found in the dis- 

 tillate, ten other analyses were made, the dis- 

 tillates of which were redistilled with perman- 

 ganate and nesslerized. It appeared in eight 

 of the last analyses that the excess of ammonia 

 obtained where the whole of the water was 

 distilled with the permanganate directly, over 

 the sum of the free and albuminoid ammo- 

 nia as usually obtained, was due to some vola- 

 tile, condensible, nitrogenous compound, from 

 which as much ammonia could be obtained by 

 the action of boiling permanganate after its 

 distillation from the original water as before. 

 A modification of the usual ammonia process 

 is suggested by these experiments. 



MM. Ed. Heckel and Fr. Schlagdenhauffen 

 have made analyses of the kola-nut (Stercularia 

 acuminata), and found that it is richer in cafe- 

 ine than the most esteemed coffees, and that 

 this base is all included in a free state, and 

 not combined, as in coffee, with an organic 

 acid ; that it contains a very appreciable quan- 

 tity of theobromine, which operates to augment 

 the action of the cafeine; that a notable quan- 

 tity of glucose, of which cacao exhibits no 

 trace, is present; that the quantity of amidon 

 is triple what it is in the seeds of theobroma; 

 that fatty matter is much less abundant than 

 in cacao ; and that a specific tannin and a red 

 coloring-matter are present. 



The difficulties which have hitherto pre- 

 vented the isolation of levulose in a satisfac- 

 tory state of purity have been overcome by 

 Messrs. Jungfleisch and Lefranc, who have 

 succeeded in preparing the pure substance in 

 crystalline form, and have studied its proper- 

 ties. Thus crystallized, it consists of fine, color- 

 less, silky needles, which sometimes attain the' 

 length of ten millimetres, and usually radiate 

 from a central point, forming spherical groups. 

 When freed from mother- liquor and dried over 

 sulphuric acid, their composition is represented 

 by the formula CJInO. When moistened with 



alcohol and exposed to the air, levulose is deli- 

 quescent, but when perfectly dry it is very 

 slightly hygroscopic. It fuses at about 95, and 

 at 100 loses water gradually, yielding ether 

 derivatives. Its rotary power varies very rap- 

 idly with the temperature, and varies in a still 

 greater degree with the dilution of the solu- 

 tion. 



Mr. Clifford Richardson, of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, has made a series 

 of analyses of grasses of the United States, for 

 the purpose of determining the relations of cul- 

 tivated and wild grasses to each other, and the 

 variations in composition which one species 

 may present when grown on different soils and 

 in different climates. His analyses embraced 

 77 of wild grasses, 21 of grasses from one farm 

 in Pennsylvania, 19 of grasses from the grounds 

 of the Department of Agriculture, and 6 of 

 orchard-grass from various localities. Against 

 the results he has placed, for comparison, the 

 averages of those obtained by Wolff from the 

 analyses of German grasses. The analyses 

 plainly show that all our American grasses 

 are strikingly different in composition from 

 similar German varieties, chiefly in that the 

 content of nitrogen is smaller, and the amount 

 of fiber is diminished, while the amount of 

 nitrogen free extract is larger, and the fat is 

 slightly increased. The nutritive range in the 

 American grasses is, then, much wider than 

 in the German grasses. In the American 

 grasses the wild varieties are of much less nu- 

 tritive value than the cultivated sorts. The 

 average composition of orchard-grass is not 

 equal to that of the better-cultivated grasses, 

 and the quality of the latter is improved as the 

 cultivation is higher a fact shown by the 

 superior quality of the grasses grown in the 

 highly-fertilized grounds of the department. 

 The tables of the analyses also show that the 

 amount of nitrogen in the non- albumin old form 

 is larger in the wild grasses than in the culti- 

 vated varieties, and that it vane's somewhat 

 inversely as the quality of the grass. In the 

 analysis of a single species (orchard -grass), from 

 different localities, it appeared that the amount 

 of non -albuminoid nitrogen does not increase 

 with an increase in the total amount of nitrogen 

 in the grass, for the poorer species had more 

 than twice as much, relatively to the total nitro- 

 gen, as the more cultivated ones; and the varia- 

 tions in the non-nitrogenous elements do not 

 show any regularity dependent on climate and 

 surroundings. Analyses of meadow fox-tail at 

 four stages of growth showed that the total 

 nitrogen diminishes regularly from early to late 

 stages ; that the albumen diminishes nearly in 

 the same way, but remains constant for quite 

 a long period at the time of blooming ; and that 

 the non-albuminoid nitrogenous substances, 

 while decreasing rapidly from the first stage 

 at which the grass was collected, to nothing at 

 full bloom, increase again slightly after bloom. 

 The fiber increases toward maturity, while the 

 fat decreases. The substances making up the 



