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Akt. XV. — History of Chemical Discoveries* 
In a Journal of Genei’al Science^ which necessarily embraces 
the various departments of abstract and practical knowledge, it 
cannot be expected that a disproportionate number of its pages / 
should be devoted to any of the individual sciences. The great 
practical utility of general Chemistry, and the small expence of 
thought and of previous education, with which it can be pursu- 
ed, have rendei’ed it popular among a class of readers who 
shrink without reason from what they think the more severe 
researches of physical science. In order to gratify, as far as we 
can, this respectable class of our readers, we have resolved to 
occupy a portion of each number with an abbreviated account 
of Chemical Discoveries and the results of chemical investiga- 
tions ; and in those cases where we could not be expected to en- 
ter into details, we shall enable the reader to pursue his own in- 
quiries, by references to those works, and to the foreign and do- 
mestic Journals, in which interesting chemical papers have ap- 
peared. 
I. On the Conversion of Animal Matter into new Substances by 
the Sulphuric Acid. By H. Braconnot. 
After having ascertained (See this Journal, vol. ii. p. 363) 
that all ligneous matter, such as wood, bark, straw, hemp, &c. 
may be transformed into gum, and into sugar, by the sulphu- 
ric acid, M. Braconnot extended his researches to the parts of 
animals, and he began with gelatine, as obtained from the skin, 
membranes, tendons, &c. of animals. 
1. He found that gelatine may be converted by sulphuric 
acid .into a crystallisable sugar siii generis, which probably does f 
not exist in nature. It crystallises more readily than that 
from the cane. It is less fusible, and it contains azote. Its 
sweetness is nearly equal to that of the sugar of grapes. Its 
sdubility in water is not greater than that of sugar of milk, 
with which it has at first sight some analogies. By slow eva- 
poration, it yields crystals as hard as sugar-candy, and in tlie 
form of flat prisms or tables grouped together. 
% That the sugar of gelatine combines intimately with the 
nitric acid, with sensible decomposition, and even without the aid 
