and some other animal Fluids. 
3 8 i 
incapable of separation by heat, and in the present instance, 
not to be detected even by acids, these re-agents producing 
no effect on the filtered solution, just alluded to. 
2. Mucus of the Oyster. 
The solution of mucus obtained by agitating oysters in 
water, exhibits to the usual tests no traces of albumen ; but 
when acted upon by electricity from the Voltaic battery, a 
considerable and rapid coagulation takes place at the nega- 
tively electrified wire. 
3. Mucus oj the Trachea , &c. 
The other varieties of mucus, as from the trachea, the nose, 
&c. agree with the former, in affording abundance of albumen 
by electric decomposition, whereas scarcely any traces of that 
substance can be detected by the tests of acids, heat, or al- 
cohol. 
In these experiments, alkaline matter was always evolved 
at the negative, and acid at the positive wire. Minute re- 
searches, made with a view of ascertaining the nature of the 
alkaline and acid matter thus evolved, shewed the former to 
consist of soda, with traces of lime ; the latter of muriatic acid, 
with traces of phosphoric acid, in the cases of saliva, and mucus 
of the trachea and nose : the mucus of the oyster afforded 
only soda and muriatic acid. 
O11 examining the proportions of alkali and acid, the former 
seemed always to predominate, although in the original fluids, 
no traces of uncombined alkali (as in the white of egg) are 
to be detected. 
These results lead to new ideas respecting the composition 
MDCCCIX, 3 D 
