Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 473 



process the temperature is constant and fixed, and much lower than 

 the red heat usually employed. 



2. (Economy of Operation. — One workman alone can manage an 

 apparatus charged with 1000 kilogrammes of amalgam; the new 

 process is adapted even to larger dimensions. 



3. (Economy of Fuel is certain, and practice alone can state the 

 amount of it ; no useless expenditure of fuel will occur, sinc*e the 

 heat employed will not be greater than required for the distillation 

 of the metal. 



4. (Economy of Mercury . — The distillation of 100 kilogrammes of 

 silver amalgam occasions the loss of two kilogrammes of mercury. 

 There are produced and annually distilled six millions of amalgamated 

 silver ; there is therefore a loss of 120,000 kilogrammes of mercury, 

 worth at least one million of francs, which loss the new process avoids. 



5. Public Health. — In the new process there is no loss of mercury ; 

 the mercurial vapour is condensed with the vapour of water ; further, 

 in the common operation, mercurial vapour fills the whole of the ap- 

 paratus, and when it is opened at the close of the operation, the 

 vapour is diffused in the atmosphere, whereas in the new process the 

 vapour has driven all metallic vapour from the apparatus, and there 

 is no danger in opening it. Thus the operation is complete, and the 

 employment of high pressure steam seems to have effected the long- 

 sought solution of the problem, of perfectly preserving the workmen 

 from the mortal attacks of mercury in the numerous and important 

 uses in which this metal is distilled. — Comptes Rendus, Octobre 14, 

 1850. 



ON THE PRESENCE OF SUCCINIC ACID IN THE HUMAN BODY. 

 BY M. W. HEINTZ. 



On examining the colourless liquid contained in hydatic cysts, 

 which are frequently developed in the liver, and sometimes even in 

 the muscles, the author discovered that this liquid contains appre- 

 ciable quantities of succinate of soda. 



The liquid contained in the hydatic cysts, extracted from the liver 

 of a woman, was colourless ; it contained the remains of hydatids, 

 which rendered the liquid turbid when it was shaken. Its density 

 was T0076. It was alkaline, and contained mere traces of albumen. 

 Neither sulphuric acid nor phosphoric acid was detected in it, but 

 much chloride of sodium, and a little lime, potash and magnesia. 

 In order to extract from this liquor the organic substances which it 

 contained, M. Heintz evaporated it to dryness ; during the eva- 

 poration pellicles were formed, which were renewed on removal. 

 The residue of the evaporation, containing crystals of common 

 salt, was mixed with alcohol, which occasioned the separation of a 

 thick syrup ; the alcoholic solution did not appear to contain urea, 

 creatin, or uric acid ; when evaporated to a syrupy consistence, it at 

 first deposited crystals of common salt, and afterwards some feathery 

 crystals, which were purified by dissolving in a small quantity of 



