SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
105 
and an acid salt of ammonia (bitartrate). A drop of the liquid containing 
the corpuscles is then placed under the microscope in a small vessel so 
constructed as to permit every part of it to he examined in succession. 
The origin and development of the vegetation of the germs may be then 
observed. So far, M. Duclaux’s researches appear to confirm the conclu- 
sions formed by M. Pasteur from his admirable investigations into the 
nature of spontaneous generation. 
New Colouring Matter ( Xylochloeric Acid ) found in Decayed Wood . — 
Decayed timber, presenting in the interior a peculiar green colour, some- 
times very intense, is often found in forests. M. Fordos has succeeded in 
extracting from it a fine green colouring matter, apparently very stable 
and susceptible of important applications, if it could be easily procured. 
It is solid and amorphous, of a deep bluish green, with a coppery lustre. 
Insoluble in. water, ether, sulphide of carbon, and benzine ; insoluble or 
nearly so in alcohol ; soluble in chloroform and crystallizable acetic acid. 
It does not appear to be altered by mineral acids, even when concentrated. 
It dissolves in sulphuric and nitric acids, giving green solutions, from 
which it is precipitated by water. Alkalies combine with it, giving it a 
yellowish-green tint. 
Chlorine water, added in sufficient quantity to its solution in chloroform, 
transforms it into a yellow substance, which the chloroform retains in 
solution ; and if ammonia be shaken up with it, after the chlorine reaction, 
a red compound, insoluble in water and chloroform, is produced. 
Besides the green colouring matter mentioned, there exists in the wood, 
in very small quantity, a red colouring matter, easily changeable, and 
with the following characteristics : — It is insoluble in water, ether, sulphide 
of carbon, and benzine ; soluble in chloroform and alcohol. It is by 
alcohol that it can be separated from the green matter. 
In order to extract these colouring matters, the wood, cut into little chips, 
is treated repeatedly with chloroform until it is exhausted. The green 
solutions are shaken up with acidulated water to free the colouring 
matter from a little lime which accompanies it. The chloroform solution 
is then separated from the acid water and distilled, after adding some 
distilled water to it. 
The chloroform distils over and the green colouring matter remains 
suspended in the water, from which it is freed by filtration, and then 
treated by alcohol to remove the red matter, which is present in very 
small quantity. 
M. Fordos thinks that the origin of the green matter may be ascribed 
to a special transformation of the astringent substances contained in the 
wood at the time of its death, or rather of the matters carried into the 
dead wood by the juices of the living tree which had penetrated into it 
before it became detached. 
The red matter offers some analogy with a substance widely diffused 
in the vegetable kingdom, called cyanine, paraearthamine, but differs 
from it in some particulars. 
The green matter differs in chemical properties from chlorophyl, with 
which it might at first be thought identical. 
