1ACTIC ACID. 257 



proximations and fcientific projects, that have for their means 

 facility of application, and utility for their object, I mean fo 

 far as they have accuracy to recommend them, I truft he will 

 not impute any motive of a perfonal nature to me, but give 

 me credit for the declaration, when I affert, that the implied 

 invitation collected from his memoir, to afcertain the accuracy 

 of any of his projects, has been my only inducement for laying 

 before the public the prefent paper. 

 I am, Sir, 



With due refpect, 



An Old Correspondent. 



IX. 



A Memoir on Milk and the Laclic Acid. By Cit. Bouillon 

 Lagrange. 



(Concluded from page 144.} 



JL HE muriate of foda, and more especially the muriate of Curd Is not fe- 



lime, affords a proof of this. Thefe falls erfed a feparation of P arated *Y ^ 

 1 ii- > 1 1 r 1 • r i- mere abftraCtior* 



the curd only in part ; and, nevertheleis, the muriate 01 lime f water. 



has a very great affinity for water: the decomposition ought 



therefore, in this cafe, to be made in a more ftriking manner 



than with the acids. 



Whey is not therefore the product of fermentation. The Whey not a 

 alcohol obtained from milk, does not prove that this formation P rcdu & of fer - 

 is neceffary in order to obtain the lactic acid; for this laft may 

 be obtained from a ferum recently prepared. 



With regard to the formation of the carbonic acid indicated Carbonic acid ia 

 in the fixth experiment, it is owing to the decomposition of whey * 

 a fmall portion of animal matter, and part of the fugar of milk 

 diffolved in the ferum. The more of thefe fubftances is de- 

 compofed the greater will be the quantity of carbonic acid 

 formed, and accordingly the degree of acidify is more marked 

 on account of the prefence of the carbonic acid; but if the 

 acid be expelled, the ferum is milder, and not fo four as that 

 which has been for fome time expofed to (he air. 



If the ferum be expofed to the air for ten or twelve days, Acetic acid, 

 in proportion as the faccharine matter is decompofed the whey 



Vol. X. — Avbil, 1805. S becomes 



