TRANSACTIONS OF TIMS SECTIONS. 79 



the most indestructible and most strongly cohesive properties, enveloping every 

 particle of the stone with which it came in contact, producing an extraordinary 

 amount of hardness, and hermetically sealing all the pores with an indestructible 

 mineral precipitate without in the slightest degree destroying the natural characteristics 

 of the stone. Specimens of stones so treated, and samples of the solutions employed, 

 were submitted to the meeting; and Mr. Ransome exhibited an illustration of the 

 principle upon which his process is based, by taking the two solutions, viz. silicate 

 of soda and chloride of calcium, both perfectly clear, and nearly colourless, and by 

 mixing them in equal proportions in a glass ; a solid substance (silicate of limej was 

 immediately produced, the chlorine combining with the soda, forming chloride of 

 sodium (common salt) ; the calcium at the same time combining with the silica, 

 forming silicate of lime. Mr. Ransome stated that the process had now been in 

 operation for nearly three years, and had been eminently successful ; that, amongst 

 other places, it had been applied to some buttresses at the new Houses of Parliament, 

 to the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, to the Baptist Chapel in Bloomsbury, and to the 

 Custom- 1 louse at Greenock ; and that it is now being applied upon Craigends House, 

 Paisley, and upon Lennox Castle, near Glasgow. Mr. Ransome also read a pro- 

 fessional report he had received from Professor T. H. Henry, F.R.S., in reference to 

 a series of experiments made by him in order to test the merits of the process, by 

 which it was shown that pieces of Bath and Caen stone, when placed in very dilute 

 sulphuric acid, were soon deeply corroded all over, and " became entirely broken up, 

 falling into fragments," whereas pieces of the same stones, after being treated by 

 Mr. Ransome's process, and placed in the same solution for an equal length of time, 

 were " unacted upon, retaining all their sharpness of outline, having lost nothing in 

 weight." 



Notes on the Current Methods for Estimating the Cellular Matter, or " Woody- 

 Fibre" in Vegetable Food-stuff's. By M. Thomas Segelcke, of 

 Copenhagen. 



It is well known that when vegetable substances are treated with solvents — such 

 as dilute acids, alkalies, alcohol, and ether — an insoluble residue remains. This 

 residue possesses similar characters though obtained from apparently very dissimilar 

 bodies. Whether from wood, or from green vegetable matter, such as grass, its pro- 

 perties are very nearly identical ; and, if the process of solution have been cai-ried far 

 enough, the residue, from whatever source, will have th.e same elementary composition. 



It would thus appear, that this insoluble matter is a definite chemical compound ; 

 and, from other considerations it is concluded, that it exists, as such, in plants, and is 

 not a mere product of the action of the solvents on their original material. It pos- 

 sesses the form and structure of the tissues of the original vegetable substance ; and 

 appears, in fact, to be the chief material of which the cell-walls are made up. The 

 names of" Cellulose," and " Woody-Fibre," have, therefore, been given to it. 



Owing to the great extent to which the matter in question occurs in vegetable food- 

 stuffs, and, to the obvious conclusion, that, from its insolubility, it will probably be 

 indigestible, and therefore innutritious, it is of great importance to establish some 

 easy means of determining its amount in such substances. 



Cellular Matter being obtained from vegetable substances by the use of various 

 solvents successively employed to remove the compounds associated with it, chemists 

 were naturally led to adopt similar means for its quantitative estimation. Accord- 

 ingly, a number of methods have been employed, the main feature in all of which has 

 been the alternate treatment of the vegetable matter with acids and alkalies. It will 

 be obvious, that the accuracy, and the conformity, of results attainable by the various 

 methods, must depend upon the degree in which Cellular Matter is really insoluble 

 in the solvents used. By many experimenters, the perfect insolubility of Cellulose 

 appears to have been regarded as an established fact. Thus, Peligot, a very careful 

 investigator, considered he had a sufficient check on the strength of the sulphuric acid 

 used as a solvent, if it passed through a paper filter without breaking it. Nor did he 

 determine whether the whole of the Cellulose obtained after the action of the acid, 

 remained insoluble when subsequently treated with alkali. 



But, although the alternate action of acid and alkali upon vegetable matter may 



