366 CASE OF SARCINA VENTRICULI. 



ing litmus strongly. It was kept for an hour at the tempera- 

 ture of 212 without drying up ; it could be dissolved in 

 water and evaporated to its original consistence many times 

 in succession, without dissipation of the acid ; but when left 

 in its most concentrated state, it absorbed moisture from the 

 air, and became more liquid. When exposed in a capsule to 

 a naked flame, it darkened in colour, the animal matter 

 became charred, and the whole was destroyed. 



" Leopold Gmelin and others have shown that when hydro- 

 chloric acid is accompanied by much animal matter, it may be 

 entangled in it, so as to escape dissipation by heat. It will 

 afterwards be shown that the acid was certainly not the 

 hydrochloric ; but to obviate any objection which might be 

 founded on this fact, several portions of the liquid were treated 

 in the following way : Some ounces were concentrated by 

 evaporation, and boiled on protoxide of lead, till the liquid 

 had lost all acid reaction. By this treatment the hydrochloric 

 acid should be converted into the insoluble chloride of lead. 

 The liquid was filtered, decomposed by a current of sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen, boiled, and filtered a second time. It 

 yielded a pale-yellow fluid markedly acid, which was sub- 

 sequently treated with alcohol and ether by the method 

 already described. The liquid, after the second filtration, still 

 precipitated nitrate of silver, for it contained all the chloride 

 of sodium originally present. Although this was no real ob- 

 jection to the distinction of the acid from the hydrochloric, I 

 was anxious to satisfy myself that it could be procured quite 

 free from chlorine. "With this object in view, several ounces 

 of the liquid were boiled with a portion of carefully prepared 

 and crystallised sulphate of silver, till it ceased to give a pre- 

 cipitate with the nitrate of the same base. A current of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen was then passed through the liquid, to 

 precipitate the excess of sulphate necessarily added, after 

 which it was boiled and filtered. It now contained free sul- 



