76 CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES. 



§ 1. QUARTERNARY AZOTIZED PRINCIPLES OF 

 VEGETABLES. 



It has now for some considerable time been ascertained that 

 several seeds contain azote, inasmuch as azotized matters, nearly 

 similar to those obtained from the tissues of animals, can be extract- 

 ed from them. M. Gay-Lussac expressed this fact in the most 

 general manner, by laying it down "as a law that every seed contains 

 a principle abounding in azote.* 



Azotized animal matters, when heated in close vessels, yield an 

 ammoniacal product ; and to satisfy ourselves of the generality of 

 the law laid down by Gay-Lussac, all that is necessary is to subject 

 any seed whatever to dry distillation. 



We do not always, indeed, obtain an ammoniacal liquor hnmedi- 

 ately in this way ; rice, for instance, when heated in a retort, yields 

 a product having an acid reaction ; but it is easy to demonstrate in 

 the acid liquor, the presence of ammonia by the addition of lime, 

 which at once sets it free. Peas, kidney-beans, in a word all the 

 legutnens hitherto experimented on, yield a liquor directly, having a 

 highly alkaline reaction. These differences, in the products of the 

 dry distillation of seeds, are explained in a very natural way. 

 Throwing the husk out of the question, we may consider a seed a? 

 formed of two parts ; one, non-azotized, possessing a ternary com- 

 position, and yielding by the action of heat a liquid with an acid re- 

 action ; the other having a quarternary composition, consequently 

 azotized, and yielding an ammoniacal liquor, so that the acid or alka- 

 line reaction of the product, really depends on the predominance of 

 one or other of these two distinct ingredients. 



M. Gay-Lussac subjected every kind of seed he could procure to 

 distillation, and all yielded ammonia either directly or indirectly. I 

 shall add, that the numerous analyses which I have had occasion to 

 make for several years back support the generality of the principles 

 laid down by the above celebrated chemist. M. Payen has come to 

 the same conclusion, and has further shown that at the period of 

 germination the azotized matter of seeds is determined towards the 

 parts that are most recently organized. Thus the spongioles situ- 

 ated at the extremities of the radicles constantly produce ammoniacal 

 vapors during their destructive distillation by heat, even though pro- 

 ceeding from seeds which, when distilled, yield an acid liquor where- 

 in ammonia only becomes sensible on the addition of lime. f 



The animalized or azotized substance is extracted readily enough 

 from certain seeds, and has consequently been known to exist in 

 them for a very long time. It is found in wheat, for example, in dif- 

 ferent states, and is obtained with great ease by simply kneading a 

 mass of dough under a small stream of water by which the starch is 

 carried off, and by and by there remains in the hand a grayish highly 



• Gay-Lussac, Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t liii. p. 110, 3e s6rie 

 t Payen, M^moire sur la cooipoaitioa chimique des v6g6taui, p- 7. 



