20 Ash Analyses.— Product of action of Nitric acid on Woody Fibre. 
Arr. III.—Ash Analyses ; by Jno. A. Porter. 
[Read before the Cambridge Scientific Association, Sept. 27, 1849.] 
Tue following analyses of the ashes of hay, oats and the refuse 
of the whiskey distillation from potatoes, were intended as the 
starting point of an investigation which had for its object the cou- 
sideration of the proportions and relations of the salts contained in 
the food, and in the liquid and solid excrements of animals. This 
investigation was interrupted by circumstances, but as the analyses 
have a certain valne independent of the special object for which 
they were intended, they are here made public. ‘The method 
employed was, without material variation, that of Fresenius and 
Will, (see Fresenius’s quantitative analysis). The alkalies were 
determined by the indirect method, that 1s, weighed together either . 
as sulphates or as chlorids, and the quantity of each calculated 
from that of the sulphuric acid in chlorine found in the mass. 
Potato refuse. Oats. 
SiO, 2-84 53°97 30-01 
so, 6°10 0:49 2-11 
PO, 16:78 We de 15:43 
co, 12-27 —— 0:68 
KO 38:52 12:94 20 80 
Na OQ. 4:47 2-02 10:85 
Ca O 5°19 3-00 8:24 
MgO 7:33 7:08 4-01 
Fe, O, 50. 0 60 1:83 
NaCl 400. “ing —. 5:09 
9900 = 97-45 99-05 
The hay was from the grass commonly known as bluetop. 
4 
Axr. IV.—A Product of the action of Ni ric Acid on Woody 
Fibre; by Jno. A. Porter. © 
[Read before the Cambridge Scientific Association, Sept. 27, 1849.] 
Tue occasion of the investigation, the results of which are here 
giv pp in the Aunales de Chimie etde Physique,* 
of an article by Prof. Sace of Neufchatel, Switzerland, on the fune- 
tions of pectic acid in the vegetable kingdom. He supposes that 
woody fibre is a product of its transformation, and that the retrans- 
formation of woody fibre into pectic acid takes place in plants, 
under certain circumstances. That the latter transformation is 
en, wasth in 
* Ann. de Chim. et de Phys., [3], xxv, 219-230, - 
