]92 ON THE IDENTITY OF RED- WATER AND SERUM. 
Experiment I. — One fluid ounce of red-water being caught 
from a cow, and to which nitric acid was added, an effervescence 
ensued ; but only a cloudy deposit took place, from the action of 
the acid being destroyed by the carbonate of ammonia, forming 
the nitrate of that alkali. 
On placing it in a vessel of boiling water for some time, the 
ammonia became volatilized ; the albumen began to be deposited ; 
the liquid first became milky, and to this a curdy deposit fol- 
lowed. Nitric acid, again applied, caused a farther deposit of 
albumen, all the ammonia being got rid of by the heat. 
Experiment II. — One fluid ounce of red-water being placed in 
a vessel of boiling water from fifteen minutes to half an hour, 
the fluid becomes turbid. Being taken from the fire, and allowed 
to cool, and nitric acid dropped into it, there is a coagulation, or 
rather, the serum containing the albumen immediately does so, 
but with only a very slight effervescence. This arises from its 
forming a new compound with a portion of uncombined soda, 
for which it has an affinity. 
Experiment III. — Mix together two equivalents of the serum 
of the blood and cow’s urine. The coagulation that results will 
be the same as that caught from the cow. Half an ounce of 
serum mixed with the same quantity of cow’s urine effervesces 
when nitric acid is poured into it. If the ammonia is again vo- 
latilized by the heat of boiling water, and the acid added, a 
deposit of flaky coagula immediately ensues. 
Experiment IV. — Half an ounce of serum and half an ounce of 
cow’s urine being mixed in a bottle, in a vessel of water, and 
kept boiling from fifteen to thirty minutes, the fluid becomes 
milky. If it is then taken off the fire and allowed to cool, and 
a little nitric acid is dropped in, it directly curdles, as in the first 
and second experiment with true red-water. 
Experiment V. — Two ounces of red-water being placed in the 
light in a corked phial, remained, after two months, pellucid and 
undecomposed, its colour neither diminished nor increased ; but it 
seemed to have acquired a more ammoniacal smell. 
Experiment VI. — One ounce of coagulable fibrine of the blood 
mixed with one ounce of cow’s urine, and exposed to the light in 
a phial, soon decomposed, and became septic and foul, with an 
exhalation of an intolerable odour. 
In making the experiment with the real and artificial red 
water, the acid only imperfectly threw down the albumen, until 
the ammonia was volatilized. 
I find, in performing these experiments, that the best plan 
is first of all to add the acid to either the true or imitative red- 
water, in order to form chemical affinities with any uncombined 
