6 
ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. 
resting 1 in connexion with certain functions of the animal economy. 
Pine-apple oil, pear oil, and apple oil, are instances of the artificial pro¬ 
duction of the delicate flavours of fruit, whilst oil of wintergreen and 
nitrobenzole are like examples of the formation of esteemed perfumes. 
But of all the bodies hitherto thus produced, alcohol, glycerine, and 
sugar, are undoubtedly the most deeply interesting, owing to the part 
they take in the nutrition of animals: they prove to us the possibility 
of producing, without vegetation or any vital intervention, an important 
part of the food of man. Should the chemist also succeed in forming 
artificially the nitrogenous constituents of food, without which life can¬ 
not be maintained, it would then be possible for a man, placed upon a 
barren rock, and furnished with the necessary apparatus and inorganic 
materials, to support life entirely without either animal or vegetable 
food. N T o one of these nitrogenous constituents has however yet been 
artificially produced, and the absence of all clue to their "rational 
constitution forms at present a formidable barrier to their non-vital 
formation.’’ 
We have thus drawn largely from the professor’s lecture, 
and the article has become longer than we had intended. If 
any excuse for this be necessaiy, we feel assured it will be 
found in the novelty and importance of the subject. Yet 
we cannot close it without coupling the above formations 
with the following transformation, which appeared in the 
leading literary and scientific journals some time since. By 
chemic aid, it would appear that the possibility of a famine 
will be completely averted. 
HOW TO MAKE A QUARTERN LOAF OUT OF A 
Deal Board. 
To make wood-flour in perfection, according to Professor 
Autenrieth, the wood, after being thoroughly stripped of its 
bark, is to be sawed transversely into discs, of about an inch 
in diameter. The saw-dust is to be preserved, and the discs 
are to be beaten to fibres, in a pounding-mill. The fibres 
and saw-dust, mixed together, are next to be deprived of 
everything harsh and bitter which is soluble in water, by 
boiling them, where fuel is abundant, or by subjecting them 
for a longer time to the action of cold water, which is easily 
done by enclosing them in a sling sack, which they only half 
fill, and beating the sack with a stick, or treading it with the 
feet in a rivulet. The whole is then to be completely dried, 
either in the sun or by fire, and repeatedly ground in a 
flour-mill. The ground wood is next baked into small flat 
cakes, with water, rendered slightly mucilaginous by the 
addition of some decoction of linseed, mallow stalks and 
leaves, lime-tree bark, or any other such substance. Pro¬ 
fessor Autenrieth prefers marsh-mallow roots, of which one 
