216 Miscellanies. 



19. Gold ill 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 lbs. troy con- 

 tain about 261 grains of gold. — Ibid. 



20. Artificial Preparation of Sugar. — 1. Sugar similar to that of 

 grapes may be prepared by boiling one part of the starch of potatoes 

 or flour, with from j^-^ to -^-^ 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. At a 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 sufiicient 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 tlie 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- 

 minated produce twenty five parts of sugar of grapes. 3. Grape su- 

 gar may also be prepared from wood sawings ; it may also be pro- 

 cured by taking twelve parts of linen rags, or paper cut into small 

 pieces, mixing them intimately and gradually with seventeen parts of 

 concentrated sulphuric acid, or with five parts of sulphuric acid and 

 one part of water : the temperature must be kept moderate. After 

 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 crystallized. 

 Chemists have not yet been able to obtain sugar prepared by these 

 artilicial 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. — Ibid. 



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^BjO-F HO alcohol. 



C4H3O3-I-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 a 

 new acid — ethalic acid and pure hydrogen : — 



C32H34O2 ethal. 



C32H32O4 ethalic acid. 

 From these facts it would appear that all kinds of alcohol are con- 

 verted, by the influence of hydrate of alkalies, into an acid, which is 



