VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXX, 
No. 349. 
JANUARY, 1857. 
Fourth Series, 
No. 25. 
Communications and Cases. 
ON GLYCERINE. 
We are indebted to Chevreul for a knowledge of the con- 
stitution of fats ; who showed them to be compounds of certain 
acids — the stearic, the margaric, and the oleic — in union with 
a base termed glycerine ; which principle, according to some 
chemists, is an oxideof glyceryle , this last being a hydro-carbon; 
sothat they maybe designatedsalts of glycerine,or the stearate, 
margarate, and oleate of glycerine. Very generally these 
principles are called stearine (from oreap suet), margarine, 
(from gapyapov , a pearl), and elaine (from e\aiov, oil). The 
difference in the consistence of fats depends upon the pre- 
ponderance of one or other of these bodies ; stearine or mar- 
garine prevailing in the more solid fats, and elaine in the 
more liquid ones. 
This view, however, of the constitution of fats, must be 
accepted as merely hypothetical it appears, although there is 
much that will analogically bear it out. Berzelius considers 
them to be peculiar organic products, resolvable by alkalies 
and other salifiable bases into fatty acids and glycerine ; 
this partly under catalytic influences, and partly as the result 
of affinity. 
The composition of glycerine is C 6 H 7 0 5 , HO. It was 
really first discovered by Scheele, and called by him the 
sweet principle of oils ( yXvKvs , sweet), but was more fully 
examined by Chevreul. 
It may be obtained by boiling a mixture of finely pul- 
verised oxide of lead, with olive oil, or any of the oils or fats, 
and water ; which latter should be poured off and renewed 
from time to time, when an insoluble soap of lead will be 
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