216 Miscellanies. 
19. Gold in France.—Becquerel has found a considerable quantity 
of gold in the sand of Cantal, near Aurillac. The rock in which it 
occurs is mica slate. The matrix contains lead: 268 Ibs. troy con- 
tain about 261 grains of gold.—ZJbid. 
* 
20. Artificial Preparation of Sugar.—t1. Sugar similar to that of 
grapes may be prepared by boiling one part of the starch of potatoes 
or flour, with from ;1, to ;5 of sulphuric acid, and four parts of wa- 
ter, for thirty six or forty hours, care being taken to renew the water 
as it evaporates. Ata higher pressure and temperature, the change 
may be effected more rapidly with a smaller quantity of acid. The 
excess of acid is then to be saturated with lime, the sulphate of lime 
separated, and the liquid concentrated by sufficient evaporation. 2. 
The starch of flour soon loses its gelatinous consistence, when moist- 
ened with an extract of sprouted barley ; it is transformed into a li- 
quid, and if the barley is in sufficient quantity it is changed in the 
course of a few hours into sugar of grapes, provided the temperature 
be maintained at 158° to 167°. Six parts of barley which has ger- 
of grapes. 3. Grape su- 
twenty four hours the mass is to be dissolved in a quantity of water, 
and boiled for ten hours; it is then to be neutralized with chalk, fil- 
tered and evaporated to the consistence of syrup, and crystal ized. 
se 
Chemists have not yet been able to obtain sugar prepared byt 
artificial methods in regular crystals like cane sugar, although there 
is little doubt that these two species differ from each other merely in 
the quantity of water with which they are combined.—Jdid. 
21. Action of Alcohol upon Alkalies.—Dumas and Stass have 
found that alcohol, when acted on by hydrate of potash and heat, is 
converted into pure hydrogen and pure acetic acid :— 
C,H,0+ HO aleohol. 
C,H,0,+HO-+H acetic acid and hydrogen. : 
Pyroxylic spirit, under the same circumstances, furnishes formic acid 
and pure hydrogen. Ethal, by the same reaction, is converted into # 
new acid—ethalic acid and pure hydrogen :-— 
C,,H,,0, ethal. 
C,,H,,0, ethalic acid. 
From these facts it would appear that all kinds of aleohol are con 
verted, by the influence of hydrate of alkalies, into an acid, which 1 
% 
