146 Scientific Intelligence. [March, 



moss in containing no bitter principle. Another portion was cut into very minute 

 shreds, and boiled for 24 hours in distilled water, which was renewed as fast as it 

 evaporated. On cooling, the liquid gelatinized, holding suspended an abundance 

 of the undissolved ligneous shreds. The jelly was transparent and colourless; 

 neither acid nor bitter ; gave no precipitate with tincture of galls, and only a tran- 

 sitory blue tinge with iodine. The ligneous fibre yielded a trace of wax on boiling 

 in alcohol ; after which, ground to a fine powder, and boiled in distilled water, the 

 solution struck a fine deep blue with iodine, from the starch present : scarcely a 

 particle of the starch can be taken up by simple boiling until after trituration. The 

 woody fibre incinerated gave a small residuum of earthy salts and iron. The quan- 

 titative composition deduced from Dr. O'Shaughnessy's analysis is as follows: 



Vegetable jelly, 54.5 



True starch, 15.0 



Wax, a trace, 0.5 ? 



Ligneous fibre, 18.0 



Gum, 4.0 



Sulphate and muriate of soda, 6.5 



Sulphate and phosphate of lime, 1.0 



Iron, a trace, 0.5 ? 



100.0 



With regard to the best mode of rendering the moss available as an article of 

 diet, we extract the following judicious observations : 



" In the first place, from the tendency of pectin or vegetable jelly to form inso- 

 luble compounds with saline and earthy bases, it is necessai-y to steep this fucus 

 for a few hours in cold rain water as the first step in its preparation. This removes 

 a large portion, if not the entire, of the sulphate of soda, leaving all the gelatine 

 and starch. It should next be dried by the sun's rays, and ground to a fine powder .- 

 I say ground, for cutting or pounding, however diligently or minutely performed, 

 still leaves the amylaceous globules so mechanically protected, and so closely in- 

 volved in an external sheath of tough ligneous fibre, that scarcely a particle of the 

 starch can be extracted by boiling, even though the decoction is prolonged for se- 

 veral hours. When ground, boiling for 25 minutes or half an hour dissolves all 

 the starch and gelatine. The solution while hot should be passed through muslin 

 or calico, and thus the ligneous fibre is removed ; lastly, the strained fluid should be 

 boiled down till a drop placed on a cold surface gelatinizes sufficiently. 



" With milk and sugar, and flavoured with lemon juice or sherry, this substance 

 when prepared as I direct, would afford the invalid a pleasant article of diet, espe- 

 cially at sea, where other jellies or their materials cannot be so easily preserved- 

 As I am informed that this fucus is found abundantly on the eastern coast of Ben- 

 gal, I entertain considerable hopes of its being hereafter found available also in 

 several processes of art and in various manufactures." 



The wide field of vegetable chemistry has been hitherto nearly untrodden in 

 India; and yet there is no country where it offers a richer harvest of curious and 

 novel results. We hope Dr. O'Shaughnessy's talents, once directed to the sub- 

 ject, will be fixed on this difficult branch of chemical analysis. He has already 

 acquired in England the peculiar skill and experience in recognizing and separating 

 the numerous and complicated principles of which organic substances are compos- 

 ed, that alone can give confidence in such analyses, and ensure their general 

 acceptance by chemists. 



