ANIMAL rLuin^- 141 



separate it from tlic water, or other substance, \vith wliicli it is 

 combined. When a solution containing -^ of its weight of pure Mpit heat has 

 albumen was kept for some time at the boihng temperature, the ['*^*^'f ^^\ft^ 

 whole fluid assumed an opake and semi-gelatinous appearance; precipitation, 

 but the water still remained so far attached to the solid matter, 

 that it scarcely passed at all through a filter of bibulous paper : 

 a part of it was not transmitted even after it had lain upon it 

 for several days, and was beginning to exhibit marks of putre- 

 faction. When albumen exists in that state of concentration in 

 which it is found in the white of the egg, i. e. composing about 

 15 parts in the 100, it is capable, as we know, of becoming so 

 completely concreted as to resemble a solid substance, and, if it 

 be divided into small pieces, it may be digested in hot water, 

 without its figure or consistency being affected. 



It appeared a subject of some importance, to ascertain the One-tenth of 



degree of dilution of which albumen admits without losing this ^1^""^*^" ^" 



° ' . ° water, renders 



property, as, by this means, some general idea might be formed it solid if heat- 



of the proportion of it in any compound fluid, merely by the ^ 'T7°r^_^*J^' 

 application of caloric, in those cases where we may not ha\e it 

 in our power to enter upon a more minute examination. 1 

 found that the white of the egg, after being mixed with half its 

 weight of water, still retained the power of becoming so far coa- 

 gulated, that the tigure of its parts, when divided by a knife, was 

 not altered ; but that when an equal weight of water was added 

 to the white of the egg, though it was rendered completely opake 

 by heat, yet it still retained some part of its tluidity, so that it 

 might be slowly poured froni one vessel to another. In the former 

 case the albumen composed somewhat less than-j-^ part of the 

 weight of the fluid, and in the second about -^j. 



I had next recourse to the oximuriate of meicury, which I Oximuriate of 

 had before found to be, as it were, the appropriate coagulator ™nts"^e^am'^ 

 bf albumen. I experinced, however, the same kind of difficulty difficulty of 

 in this case, as in the employment of caloric. Notwithstand- '^^* 

 ing the delicacy with which the oximuriate of mercury detects 

 the most minute portion of albumen, I found the coagulation to 

 . be so complete, that the fluid continued to retaia a conydcrable 

 ^cgree of opacity, after being passed through a filter, and to be 

 still coagulable by the application of heat, even when it indi- 

 cated an excess of the oximuriate. The entire separation f f 



the albumen seemed, however, to be attained by the union of —but this salt 



^ ^> aided by heat 

 ^^"'^ IS effectual. 



