312 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Paven, who investigated the composition of the flesh of the whiting. They 
are as follow : — 
Halibut. 
Whiting. 
Water 
82*87 
82-95 
Solid constituents 
17*12 
17*05 
Ash 
1*08 
1*08 
Patty matter .... 
1*26 
0-38 
Nitrogen 
2*01 
2*41 
esh of the American fish, when dried 
at 100° C., 
was found 
Carbon 
50*38 
Hydrogen .... 
7*43 
Nitrogen 
11-68 
Oxygen 
6*35 
Ash 
2416 
100-00 
and of the above constituents 7-11 per cent, were present in the form of fatty 
matter. The ash of the flesh of this fish is composed of — 
Silicic acid 
0-32 
Chlorine 
11*11 
Carbonic acid . 
1*13 
Sulphuric acid . 
. ' . . 1*30 
Phosphoric acid 
34*36 
Iron . 
0*19 
Lime 
015 
Magnesia . 
2*43 
Potash 
37*07 
Soda 
12-22 
Lithia 
trace. 
100*28 
Some considerable part of the alkaline metals which the author gives as 
oxides in the above percentage numbers must in reality be present in the 
form of chlorides , combined with the 11*11 per cent, of chlorine, and the 
total constituents found must therefore fall short of the total above given. 
In fact, the 11*11 per cent, of chlorine has, so to speak, been left out in the 
cold, uncombined, and must take the place of oxygen in these calculated 
results ; this will reduce the total considerably. More than 70 per cent, of 
the constituents of the ash, according to the author’s mode of regarding 
them, consists of phosphoric acid and potash. — American Journal of Science y 
1877, x., 111-123. 
The Estimation of Nitrogen in Nitrates. — The method recommended by 
Thorpe in his Quantitative Chemical Analysis for the determination of nitro- 
gen in nitrates, has been examined by S. W. Johnson, of Yale College. 
The plan referred to consists in reducing compounds containing nitric acid to 
the form of ammonia by the use of strips of zinc covered with copper, by 
the u couple,” in short, devised by Gladstone and Tribe. The author 
