and some of its Products of Decomposition. 371 
in which the three atoms of water were replaced with four atoms 
of metallic oxyd. 
_ The gelatine-sugar-nitric acid he found to be 
1eH,, N,0,,,4NO,4+9 HO, 
and its compounds with bases to be 
,,H,,N,0,,+4NO0,+4(8)MO+2aq. | 
This exceedingly complicated formula, and its high atomic 
weight, together with the fact that the several formule for gela- 
tine 
each other, are nevertheless but slight modifications from once, 
twice, three and four times the following formula, 
} 
led naturally to the conclusion that the differences might be attrib- 
uted partly to the impurity of the substances analyzed, and partly 
to the imperfect atomic weights at that time in use. 
Beyond the description and analysis of the body itself, and the 
few salts above enumerated, gelatine sugar had met with no de- 
tailed examinations. ‘These considerations gave occasion to the 
Investigation which follows. It is scarcely necessary to add to 
the statement of its having been conducted at Giessen, that the 
counsel and codperation there enjoyed, have united with the recol- 
lections of this labor, some of the most grateful memories of a life. 
Formula of Glycocoll. 
singault, no conclusion remained, but that the analyses they had 
recorded, and those we had made, were of different bodies. After 
the analyses of several compounds of this body with hydrochloric, 
ulphurie and nitric acids, oxyd of copper, nitrate of silver, and 
bisulphate of potash, the ‘conviction was established that its con- 
Stitution was C,H, NO,; 
to which in crystallized gelatine sugar, an atom of water is united.* 
Upon comparing the per-centages derived from this formula 
with the results of analysis in Boussingault’s last investigation, 
€ differences will be seen to be scarcely greater than frequently 
ccur in a series of the best determinations. Ld Gees 
The body analyzed by Boussingault, was dried at 120° C., 
(248° F.] ‘That analyzed by us lost nothing in weight at 150° C., 
* For the anhyd h idopted the already proposed name Gry- 
i idapprpacud a tee hace ott s hope noticed by Dessaigne. 
attribute of sweetness it shares with AqO, Sg Og, oxide of glyceryle and ni- 
: 
