470 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
An interesting account is given of the discovery of a peculiar 
principle in the blood, by M. Barruel. The veterinarian has suffi¬ 
cient opportunity to institute a variety of curious experiments; 
and M. Barruel has shown how the result may be applicable to 
the elucidation of many important cases in jurisprudence. On 
the blood of the human being, the horse, the ox, the sheep, the 
dog, and the pig we have experimented, and with considerable 
satisfaction: we shall pursue the inquiry, and we trust that our 
brethren will likewise do so. 
hilst preparing the colouring matter of blood according to M.Vauque- 
lin’s process, the clot of ox blood was boiled with a large excess of sulphuric 
acid of moderate strength, on which occasion a strong odour of beef was 
observed. Some time after, having occasion to operate upon the blood of 
a man who had taken opium, the fluid was first coagulated by heat, and 
divided, after which it was boiled with weak sulphuric acid: immediately 
so strong an odour of the sweat of man was evolved as to infect the whole 
laboratory, and render it necessary lor the persons to leave the place. This 
and the former fact combined, induced M. Barruel to extend experiments 
on these subjects, and the following are the results:— 
i. T1 he blood of each species of animal contains a principle peculiar to 
each. ii. This principle, which is very volatile, has an odour resembling 
that of the sweat, or the cutaneous, or pulmonary exhalation of the animal 
from which the blood was taken, iii. In the blood this volatile principle is 
in a state of combination, its odour being then insensible, iv. When the 
combination is broken, this principle is volatilized, when it is easy to recog¬ 
nize the animal to which it belongs, v. In each species of animal this prin¬ 
ciple is more decided, or has more intensity of odour in the male than in 
the female ; and in men the colour of the hair accompanies certain variations 
in this principle, vi. This principle is in a soluble state in the blood, 
and may be found, therefore, either in the unaltered blood, or after the 
fibrine has been removed, or even in the serosity of blood, vii. Of all the 
means of setting this principle at liberty concentrated sulphuric acid has 
succeeded best. 
To obtain these results, it is only necessary to put a few drops of blood 
or the serosity of blood into a glass, to add concentrated sulphuric acid, to 
the amount of one-third or half as much as of blood, and to stir the whole 
together with a tube—the odoriferous principle is immediately rendered evi¬ 
dent. By these means, M. Barruel can readily distinguish the blood from 
the following sources:— 
i. That of a man disengages a strong odour of the perspiration of man, 
which it is impossible to confound with any other, ii. That of a woman, by 
a similar odour much weaker, and resembling the perspiration of women. 
iii. That of the ox, a strong odour of oxen or a cow-house, or of cow-dung. 
iv. That of the horse, by a strong odour of the perspiration of the horse or 
of horse-dung. v. That of a ewe, by a strong odour of wool, impregnated 
with the perspiration of that animal, vi. That of a wether, by an odour 
analogous to that of sheep, mixed w ith a strong odour of the goat. vii. That 
of the dog, the odour of the transpiration of a dog. viii. That of a pig, by 
the disagreeable odour of a piggery, ix. That of a rat, by the bad odour 
belonging to the rat. 
The same result has been obtained with the blood of various kinds of 
birds, and even with the blood of a frog, which gave the strong odour of 
