1854.] 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



313 



the gluten by a soluble albuminoid principle varying widely in the proportion 

 of nitrogen. 



Hard Wheat, — Fracture horny, semi-translucent, without a starch-like 

 appearance ; all the nitrogen existing under the form of gluten and the 

 weight of it always a little superior to the quantity of albuminoid principal 

 represented by the nitrogen; only small variations in the proportion of 

 nitrogen, the amount of which is large. This last characteristic does not 

 serve to distinguish the hard wheat, since it is not rare to meet with tender 

 wheat containing as much nitrogen as the hard wheat, or even more. 



Wheat intermediate between these two varieties, M. Millon names 

 semi-hard wheat, which he describes as follows : — 



Fracture close and less horny than in hard wheat ; whitish when crushed ; 

 a proportion of gluten mixed with the albuminoid principle ; a large pro- 

 portion of nitrogen , and this nearly constant. 



These descriptions are completed by a mention of the external characters, 

 taken from the volume, color, integuments, etc. His facts are derived 

 mainly from the wheat of Algeria and those of the north of France, and it 

 remains to make the results general, and applicable to wheat of whatever 

 origin. — Correspondence of Silliman's Journal. 



Ox the Proximate principles of Bran of Wheat. — Some years 

 since, M. Millon, as a result of long labor, arrived at the conclusion 

 that bran is an alimentary substance ; that bran bread and pilot bread 

 ("pain dc munition") was more healtby and more nutritious than 

 white bread. This opinion has been contested, and Millon has been 

 ironically attacked for not conforming to the regimen he rocommends. 

 But the opinion is now sustained by Chevreul, who declared his views 

 on the ooeasion of a memoir of M. Mourier on this subject. It is 

 known too that according to Magendie's experiment, dogs could live 

 on bran bread whilst they died on white bread. This fact which 

 appeared so singular, is explained through the researches in question. 



The inner surface of bran is covered with azotized principles which like 

 diastase will disolve starch, changing it into dextrine and sugar. These 

 principle differ somewhat from diastase ; still it is demonstrated that the 

 bran acts as a ferment in fermentation, and consequently in a similar man- 

 ner in digestion. 



On forming Vessels of Gold by the aid of Phosphorus. — The 

 property of phosphorus, of precipitating certain metals from their solu- 

 tion has long been known ; and gold is among the number. M. Levol 

 has used this process in forming gold vessels useful in chemical re- 

 search. He takes the perchlorid of gold, and places in it, at the ordinary 

 temperature, some phosphorus, moulded of a form convenient to serve 

 as a nucleus for the vessels of gold. To give the phosphorus the desired 

 shape, it is melted in a water bath near 60° C. in temperature, within 

 a vessel of glass having the form required. After cooling it, the phos- 

 phorus is taken out solid, from its envelop, breaking it, if it be necessary. 

 The precipitation of the gold or tlie construction of the vessel is then 

 begun , and it finally remains only to remove the phosphorous by re- 

 melting it and washing by the aid of boiling nitric acid until the last 

 traces are removed. 



New Planets: — Bdlona (28), (Comptes Rand., xxxviii, 455, 561). 

 — On the first of March, 1854, Mr. Luther, Director of the Observatory 

 at Bilk, discovered a new planet, which has received from Mr. Encke 

 the name Bdlona : it is of the tenth magnitude. Its position, March 

 6d lOh 27m 30s, M. T. Hamburg was R. A. 180° 35' 38" and Dec. + 

 7° 47' 34". Mean daily motion in R. A. 10' 1" decreasing, in Dec. 

 9' 26", increasing. 



Amphitrite (29), (Compt. Rend., xxxviii, 429, 645).— Mr. Albert 

 Marth, at the Regent's Park Observatory in London, discovered an- 

 other planet near Spica Virginia, on the morning of the second of 

 March. It appears as a star of the teuth magnitude. Mr. Bishop 

 has proposed for it the nam! Amphitrite. The following elements of 

 its orbit were calcutatel by M. Yvon Villarceau, according to the 

 method given in the Connaisance. des Tethps for 1852, from 16 observa- 

 tions made at Paris during the month of March. 



Epoch 1854, March 00, M. T. Paris. 



Mean anomaly, 

 Long, perihelion, 



" asc. node, 

 Inclination", 

 Angle of eccentricity, 

 Mean daily motion, 

 Semi-axis major, 

 Period of revolution, 



114° 33' 54"-58 



64 50 22 -81 ) Mn. Eqnx. 

 356 20 34 -94 /Mar. 0-0, 1854. 



- 6 6 19 -69 



- 4 34 47 -04 



- 864"-3868 



- 2-5637300 



- 4 VVS . 104962 



This planet was discovered independently by M. Chacornac, assis- 



tant observer at the Observatory of Paris on the third of March. He 

 also on the fourth of February, at Marseilles, noted a star of the tenth 

 magnitude which is now wanting in that place, and which is shown to 

 have been the body first recognised as a planet by Mr. Marth. 



New Comet I. of 1854, (Comptes Pencl., xxxviii, 648). — The comet 

 which was visible to the naked eye on the twenty-ninth of March last* 

 and the few following clays, was seen on the same day in Paris The 

 following elements were computed by Mr. James Ferguson (Astron. 

 Journ., No. 71), from the Washington observations of April 3, 7 and 

 11. 



Perihelion passage, 1854, March 24-0581, M. T. Berlin. 

 Long, perihelion, - - - 214° 52' 52"-0 "I Mn. Eqnx. 



" asc. node, 316 19 58 -2 / Apr. 7-0, 1854. 



Inclination, - - - 83 30 33 -4 



Log. perihelion dist,, - 9-441070 



Motion, - - - Retrograde. 



This comet was seen in the east on the morning of the twenty- 

 third of March by Mr. Alfred de Menciaux near Damazan in France. — 

 Cor. Sill. Jour. 



Proportion and Properties of Metallic Aluminum. — St. Clair 

 Deville has communicated a memoir on aluminum which contains some 

 new facts but which does not add enough to our positive knowdedge to 

 justify the extraordinary flourish of trumpets with which the communication 

 was made and received. The metal was prepared by Wohler's method, 

 namely, by heating the chlorid with sodium, and afterwards fusing the 

 globules into one mass under the mixture of common salt and chlorid of 

 aluminum. As thus prepared it was silver white, malleable and ductile, 

 and had the fusing point of silver. Its hardness was increased by ham- 

 mering but it again became soft on heating. Its density was 2-53 ; it was 

 a good conductor of heat and could be fused and poured out in the air with- 

 out becoming sensibly oxydized. Aluminum is completely malleable in dry 

 air or moist. Sulphureted hydrogen, hot and cold water, nitric acid weak 

 or concentrated, and dilute sulphuric acid have no action upon it. Its true 

 solvent is muriatic acid with which evolves hydrogen, sesquichlorid of 

 aluminum being formed. Heated to reduess in muriatic acid gas it yields 

 dry and volatile sesquichlorid. The author stated that the chlorid of alu- 

 minum was acted upon by common metals at high temperatures and 

 hoped that further experiments would point out a simple and a cheap method 

 of procuring in large quantities and at a low rate a metal so likely to be 

 useful in the arts. The Academy unanimously voted that a sum of money 

 should be placed at the disposal of M. Deville to aid him in the prosecution 

 of Ins experiments. — Comptes Rendus, Feb. Gth, 1854. 



Detection of Manganese. — Solids to he examined for manganese are 

 finely powdered ; fluids require no preparation. The smallest portion of 

 either is mixed with a drop of a solution of pure caustic potash, and heated 

 over a gas-flame. On boiling the alkali to dryness and raising the heat, 

 the characteristic green colour of manganate of potash will appear. The 

 best support is a sup of silver-foil, two or three inches long, and a-half-an- 

 inch wide. In this manner manganese has been detected in a single drop 

 of a solution, containing one grain of solid sulphate in ten thousand of water. 

 The presence of other oxides does not interfere. — Artizan. 



Zinc applied to Ship-Building. — A sloop built of zinc, with iron 

 framing and wooden decks, called the " Comte Ldhon," has been con- 

 structed at Nantes, France, by Mr. Gulbert, and named after one of the 

 directors of the Vieille Montagne Company. She is elegant in form, 

 draws but little water, and i3 considered in every respect a first-rate 

 vessel. The command was given to Captain Jouanna, of Lorient, and 

 her first voyage-was to Pao Janeiro, from which place she has returned. 

 The captain reports that the experiment has been highly satisfactory ; 

 she has proved an excellent sea-boat in repeated gales, which she had 

 to encounter ; and one fact is stated of much importance — that her com- 

 passes had never been in the slightest degree affected, a circumstance 

 which often happens on iron ships, by which serious casualties have 

 occurred. 



Glaciers.— In a letter to Arago, M. De la Rive attributes the sudden 

 appearance of vast glaciers in divers parts of Europe to a temporary 

 refrigeration produced at the period of the elevation of the most recent 

 European strata, by the evaporation of the water with which they were 

 previovsly covered. If evaporation takes place more rapidly from water 

 mixed with sand, earth, or any similar substance than from a surface of 

 clear water, it becomes natural to conclude, that the cold produced by 

 evaporation from the recently-elevated and still humid strata, must have 

 been greater than that resulting from the evaporation of the sea or fresh- 

 water lake which covered them previously to a great depth. — Bibliotheque 

 Universelle, Jlpril, 1853. 



