TRANSACTIONS OS? THE SECTIONS. 73 



engaged in the preparation of oxalate of methyl. It was noticed that different 

 samples of naphtha gave different quantities of this crystalline body. Further 

 investigations sliowed that the presence even of a small quantity of methylated 

 spirit or alcohol in the wood-naphtha from which the oxalate was prepared, altered 

 in the most striking manner the temperature at which solidification took place. 

 Thus, oxalate of methyl prepared from pure wood-naphtha is always solid at a 

 temperature exceeding 100^ F. This has been confirmed by experiments on all 

 kinds of naphtha, English and foreign. 



In samples containing methylated spirit or alcohol, ciystallization always takes 

 place at a temperature less than 100° F., such temperature depending on the per- 

 centage of alcohol present. The following are the averages of many experiments : — 



The test is easily applied. Distil at a moderate heat 1 oz. of the suspected 

 spirit, 7 drs. oxalic acid, and 1 oz. sulphuric acid ; collect the crystals, if any, in a 

 small beaker, and heat until the crystals melt, then ^ntli a thermometer watch 

 the temperature at which crystallization again takes place. 



One precaution is necessary : the sample examined, if not miscible with water, 

 must be rendered so by filtration through charcoal previous to testing. 



A Metliod of Preserving Food hj Muriatic Acid. 

 By the llev. H. Highton, M.A. 

 As the great objection to preserving articles of food by chemical compounds is 

 that it imparts a flavour to them more or less unpleasant, it occurred to the author 

 to try whether they could not be preserved in the first instance by muriatic acid, 

 and then before use be deprived of their acidity by means of soda or its carbonates. 

 The author tried many experiments, and found that in many cases the plan might 

 be employed with very good results, the muriatic acid not affecting the most 

 delicate flavours, but leaving the article just as it was before, with only a slight 

 not objectionable taste of common salt. There are two principal ways of effecting 

 the object : — 



1. To dip the meat, fish, or other substance at intervals, if necessary, and expose 

 it freely to the air to dry. During this process of drying the coating of muriatic 

 acid prevented the approach of decomposition. Meat and fish thus prepared re- 

 mained perfectly sweet for many months. The only thing necessary before using 

 them was to steep them in a very dilute solution of carbonate of soda till any 

 slight traces of the acid were neutralized. 



2. The other plan is to enclose the substance in a close vessel with a small quantity 

 of mm-iatic acid, so as to prevent evaporation. A very small quantity of muriatic 

 acid seems to be sufficient to destroy the germs of "decomposition— a quantity 

 which, when ultimately neutralized by soda, gives a scarcely perceptible flavour 

 of salt, A too large quantity of muriatic acid tends itself to decompose the sub- 

 stance submitted to its action. 



One application of the plan was described. If meat be cut up small and steeped 

 in weak muriatic acid, and when it is thoroughly penetrated boiled in a very 

 dilute solution of carbonate of soda, carbonic acid is evolved in the pores of the 

 meat, and splits it up into such minute fi-agments as to produce virtually a solution 

 of the meat. 



