362 CASE OF SARCINA VENTRICULI. 



passed over. The fluid in the receiver was colourless but 

 opalescent, and a flocculent matter was diffused through it ; 

 it reddened litmus strongly, and gave, with nitrate of silver, a 

 precipitate insoluble in nitric acid, and soluble in ammonia. 

 The latter reaction seemed to point to the acid as the hydro- 

 chloric, but as the liquid had not the odour of that acid, and 

 the presence of flocculent matter showed that substances not 

 truly volatile, had been passing over with the vapour during 

 distillation, I suspected that the precipitation of the silver 

 salt had resulted from chloride of sodium transferred from 

 the liquid in the retort by a similar process of mere mechani- 

 cal convection. To decide this point, a portion of the distilled 

 fluid was evaporated to dryness in a porcelain capsule, and 

 strongly heated ; distilled water poured upon the residue 

 precipitated nitrate of silver, indicating the presence of some 

 fixed metallic chloride.* To remove this, the liquid was 

 filtered from the animal matter it held in suspension, and 

 slowly distilled a second time in a capacious retort. The pro- 

 duct of this distillation was colourless and transparent, and 

 possessed a strong acid reaction, but gave not the slightest 

 haze with nitrate of silver. It retained the vomit-smell, and 

 along with it a faint acid odour, which was not perceptible to 

 myself, but which others recognised, and pronounced to be 

 that of vinegar. 



* Berzelius has particularly pointed out the difficulty of distilling viscid 

 animal fluids in retorts, without the transference of non-volatile matters, which 

 appear to be projected upwards by the bursting of the bubbles of vapour pro- 

 duced during tumultuous ebullition. Traite de Chimie, tome vii. p. 616, 

 Ed. 1832. 



Liebig has likewise called the attention of chemists to the remarkable power 

 which vapours possess, of carrying along with them portions of bodies (such 

 as nitre, boracic acid, chloride of sodium), which in their solid form resist dis- 

 sipation by very high temperatures. "When such bodies are dissolved in 

 water, its vapour, even when far below the boiling point, determines their 

 volatilisation along with itself. Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agri- 

 culture, 1st Ed. p. 111. 



