CASE OF SARCINA VENTKICULI. 363 



" To ascertain the nature of the acid, six ounces of the 

 twice-distilled liquid were neutralised with lime-water and 

 evaporated to dryness. The lime-salt was then transferred to 

 a tube-retort, and distilled with sulphuric acid slightly diluted. 

 A colourless liquid collected in the receiver, which was at 

 once recognised, by its odour, to contain acetic acid. This 

 experiment was very carefully repeated with four portions of 

 liquid distilled from different specimens of the ejected matter ; 

 the result was the same with all, an acid liquid was procured, 

 which all who smelt it pronounced to be acetic acid. 



" I was the more careful in repeating these trials, that 

 Berzelius has shown that in the analysis of animal fluids, 

 other volatile odorous acids may readily be mistaken for 

 acetic acid. He particularly notices that lactic acid, accom- 

 panied by a chloride, may seem to be an acetate, when 

 moistened with sulphuric acid ; the sharp smell of the 

 evolved hydrochloric acid passing for the peculiar odour of 

 the acetic. Even so expert a chemist as Leopold Gmelin has 

 been deceived in this way.* But the liquid from the stomach, 

 the lime-water, and the sulphuric acid, were all tested and 

 found to contain no chloride, nor did the distilled liquid con- 

 tain any ; moreover, the evidence of the acid being the acetic, 

 did not depend on the perception for a moment of a faint and 

 fleeting odour, when the salt was moistened with sulphuric 

 acid ; a drachm of liquid was obtained by each distillation, so 

 that the odour could be perceived and identified by many 

 persons. In further trial of the acid, it was ascertained, that 

 when digested in the cold on recently-precipitated oxide of 

 lead, it formed a soluble salt, having a sugary taste, and pos- 

 sessing an alkaline reaction. The acquirement of the latter 

 property, depending on the formation of a subsalt of lead, has 

 been shown by Liebig to be distinctive of acetic acid.f 



* Berzelius, Op. et. loc. citat. 

 t Graham's Elements of Chemistry, p. 785. 



