20 
A FEW NOTES FROM PARIS. 
which is therefore obviously too high for simply removing adherent moisture. 
The powdered galls are made into a paste with water, and kept in the moist 
slate for six weeks at 60° or 70°. During this time a peculiar kind of fer¬ 
mentation takes place. The paste is then exhausted by boiling water, and 
the solution crystallized. The gallic acid is not contained in the gall-nut, 
but is produced by the decomposition of the tannin present. Under the in¬ 
fluence of moisture and warmth, the peetase, a nitrogenous ferment present in 
the gall, becomes active, and induces the tannin to assimilate water and 
split up into gallic acid and glucose. 
C, 7 EL-2 0 17 + 4 H 2 O = 3 (H, C 7 H 3 0 5 ) + C G H ]2 O 
Tannin. Gallic acid. Glucose. 
6 * 
Gallic acid contains one atom of water of crystallization, H.hC 7 H' 3 0 5 , H 2 0 
which is driven off at *212°; consequently the acid loses 9'5 percent, of its 
weight by being heated to that temperature. Between 410° and 419° Fahr. 
it is wholly volatilized, being resolved into pyrogallic and carbonic acids. 
u 3 c 7 n,o 5 - c 6 h 6 o 3 + co 2 . 
Gallic acid. Pyrogallic 
acid. 
If the temperature exceed the point named, the pyrogallic acid is itself 
decomposed. 
A FEW NOTES FROM PARIS. 
BY HENRY B. BRADY, E.L.S., ETC. 
It is not difficult to trace the causes which have made Paris a chief resort 
amongst pleasure-seekers. To Englishmen accustomed to the grey, unpic- 
turesque gloom of their busy mercantile cities, a country village is scarcely a 
greater change than the brilliant sunshine of the French metropolis, its 
boulevards, its cafes, and the gay, nothing-to-do air of its inhabitants. The 
transition seems to be equally congenial to our transatlantic cousins, who, if 
one may judge by their numerical proportion amongst the loungers, or by 
the utterances of their literary men,* believe in the delights of Paris with 
an ever-increasing fervour. The states of continental Europe, too, testify 
their allegiance by each adding its quota to the odd congeries that consti¬ 
tutes the floating population. Now, more than ever, are the.streets crowded 
with foreigners ; and the w r onder is, where the normal inhabitants put them¬ 
selves in order to accommodate the troops of peaceful invaders. 
To those who have been in Paris, and know the city in its relatively 
quieter moods, we shrink from the responsibility of giving advice whether 
they should or should not yield to the extra temptation of the Exhibition, 
and the present increased facilities for travelling. But to the many who 
have not, w'e do not hesitate to say, “ Go it is scarcely possible that a first 
visit can result in disappointment. 
The Exhibition is, of course, the leading attraction at the present time ; 
and though there will doubtless be in this Journal, as with almost every 
other devoted to scientific or commercial interests, a systematic survey of 
those portions of the great display that immediately affect its readers, there 
* To these must certainly be added that other saying of one of the wittiest of men :— 
“ { Good Americans, when they die, go to Paris.’ 
“ The divinity student looked grave at this, but sa’d nothing. 
“ The schoolmistress spoke out, and said she didn’t think the wit meant any irreverence. It 
was only another way of saying, ‘ Paris is a heavenly place, after New York or Boston.’ ”— 
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. 
