402 



Miscellanies. 



ness exactly passed. The appearances were every way extraordinary, 

 unexpected, and most singular. At the moment when the total obscu- 

 ration commenced, a brilliant crown of glory encircled the moon, like 

 the aureola, which Catholic painters append to their saints. Suddenly, 

 from the border of the black and laboring moon, thus singularly en- 

 shrined, burst forth at three distinct points, within the aureola, purple 

 or lilac flames, visible to every eye. At this moment, from the whole 

 assembled population of the town, a simultaneous and deafening shout 

 broke forth. A similar manifestation of popular feeling occurred at 

 Milan, occasioned by the self-same astonishing spectacle, accompanied 

 in the latter instance with a general Huzzah ! vivent les astronomes ! 

 The eclipse was also viewed from the Superga, near Turin, by our As- 

 tronomer Royal, Mr. Airy, apparently under less favorable circum- 

 stances. — London Athencmm. 



10. Vegetable and Animal Filrine, Albumen, and Caseine. — MM. 

 Scherer and Jones, operating in the laboratory of M. Liebig at Giessen, 

 have found that vegetables contain three azotized bodies, which they 

 have called vegetable fibi'ine, vegetable albumen, and vegetable caseine. 

 These substances possess precisely the same elementary composition. 

 Vegetable fibrine is the matter which does not dissolve when gluten is 

 treated with alcohol — that portion soluble in this liquid they have 

 named vegetable gluten. Vegetable albumen is found in the juice of 

 vegetables, and caseine is extracted from peas, beans, or lentils — when 

 these are treated with water, the portion dissolved is caseine. On com- 

 paring the properties of these three bodies with those of the corres- 

 ponding bodies of animal origin, that is to say, albumen, fibrine, and 

 caseine, it is found that the vegetable substances possess all the prop- 

 erties which belong to those of animal origin, and analysis shows 

 they are isomeric. These unexpected results throw great light on 

 physiological phenomena ; they explain the reciprocal transformations 

 which fibrine, caseine, and albumen undergo in the animal organiza- 

 tion ; they also lead to this very remarkable physiological consequence, 

 that herbivorous animals find in vegetables, substances which are anal- 

 ogous to their blood and muscular fibre. The following are the results 

 of their different analyses : 



Jour, de Pharm. Jan. 1842. Lon. Ed. and Dub, Jour. JVo. 129, Feb. 1842. 



