(ENANTHIN GTJM. 267 



deaux is considerable enough to be looked on as one 

 of the ingredients of red wine, and the peculiar cha- 

 racteristic assigned to it by Eaure cannot be admitted, 

 namely, that the greater consistence which marks old 

 wines, or which have been long in cellar, arises 

 from it. 



It is soluble in water, but not in alcohol, in which 

 liquid, if left for a time, it loses its clamminess, soft- 

 ness, and coherence, and becomes hard and brittle, 

 but if soaked in water regains its viscidity. (Enan- 

 thin cannot be precipitated by tannic acid. 



Unlike Eaure I discovered no nitrogen in it. If 

 subjected to dry distillation it gives rise to a strongly 

 acid liquid which, if saturated with potash and touched 

 with a rod wetted with muriatic acid, exhibits only a 

 very faint trace of ammonia. 



I have been at great pains to ascertain these facts, 

 and we are now sure that the substance before us is 

 neither albumen nor vegetable gluten, nor one of 

 their nitrogenous products. Neither albumen nor 

 vegetable gluten can appear in it, for they are soluble 

 in alcohol and tartaric acid, and there was only a 

 trace of a substance yielding ammonia, and this did 

 not belong to the chief substance present. I, like 

 Eaure, found the substance easily soluble in boiling 

 water, and not coagulatable by heat. But its trans- 

 formation into sugar when warmed with sulphuric 

 or muriatic acid, contradicts his assertions, and is 

 an ascertained fact. (Enanthin is, as we have seen, a 



