FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
119 
and evolves carbonic acid, and, when left to itself, dries up 
to thin, shining, transparent films, devoid of structure, and 
resembling the mucin of the garden snail. 
Recently produced, it is highly phosphorescent, and the 
production of light is owing to oxidation. It is secreted in 
phosphorescent animals by a special organ just as bile is 
secreted by the liver, and appears to be used in producing 
light nearly as fast as it is formed. Its light is nearly 
monochromatic, and its spectrum principally developed 
between the lines E and F. In an impure state noctilucin 
can be obtained from the surface of various fish when highly 
phosphorescent, also from the glowworm by pressing the 
luminous matter collected by the scalpel through porous 
filtering-paper. It is secreted in a pure form by the luminous 
centipede ( Scolopendra electrica ).—J. B. —Journal of the 
Chemical Society. 
Preparation of Albumin. —(‘ Dingl. Polyt. Jr., ccv/ 
78).—Schwalbe states that if. a drop of mustard-oil be added 
to 20 grams of milk, the latter does not curdle, but its casein 
is, after some time, changed into albumin. 
Albumin may thus be cheaply prepared.—M. M. P M.— 
Ibicl. 
The Poisonous Principle of Ergot-of-Rye. —By E. 
Handelin ( c N. Jahrb. Pharm., xxxvii, 157 ; Chem. Centr./ 
1872, 577).—This substance dissolves in water, but scarcely 
or not at all in alcohol. It is soluble, however, in dilute 
alcohol mixed with acetic acid, from which solution it is pre¬ 
cipitated by ether, partly at least undecomposed. It is de¬ 
composed by barium hydrate not precipitated, or only par¬ 
tially by potassium-bismuth iodide. By precipitation with 
mercuric chloride and tannic acid, it undergoes alteration, by 
which it loses its physiological activity. Hence it would 
appear that neither the substance (echoline) which Wenzell 
obtained from the precipitate formed by mercuric chloride, 
nor the ergotine obtained from the filtrate, can be regarded 
as the active principle of the ergot.—H. W.— Journal of the 
Chemical Society. 
Influence of Food containing little or no Phos¬ 
phoric Acid on the Composition of Bones. —By H. 
Weiske (‘Zeitschrift f. Biologie/vii, 133—179; ‘Chem. Centr./ 
1872, 427).—The author concludes from his experiments 
that the removal of lime or phosphoric acid from the food of 
an adult goat has injurious results, and finally causes death, 
but has no influence on the composition of bones, and can 
hardlv render them brittle.—T. L. B.— Ibid. 
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