546 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
latter it can, by the alcoholic solution of potash, he obtained in 
sufficiently large quantity for chemical examination, fermentation, 
&c. Before the birth of the animal, as these tissues become fully 
developed, it vanishes from, or rather becomes in an altered form a 
constituent part of each. In the completely formed hair, feathers, 
horn of the foetus, it is no longer to be found. 
The muscular tissues of the foetus are full of it; from twenty to 
fifty per cent of amyloid substance can be extracted from the muscles 
of foetal calves, of from three to seven months, by the aid of the 
alcoholic solution of potash. If a portion of the muscular tissue of 
a foetal calf, of about three or four months, be perfectly desiccated 
on a water bath and the residue reduced to fine powder, the albu¬ 
minoid part may be washed out by treating it repeatedly with freshly 
made alcoholic solution of potash: one may thus obtain tolerably 
pure animal dextrine, equal in amount to nearly one half of the dry 
residue of the muscle so treated. The amyloid substance obtained 
in this way does not very readily become transformed into sugar on 
the addition of saliva; whether this may be caused by something 
peculiar in its constitution, or by the difficulty of getting, even after 
repeated washings, completely free of the potash, I have not yet been 
able satisfactorily to determine. It is very difficult, if not impossible, 
by any process to obtain it from the muscular tissue of the foetus 
without more or less admixture of azotised matters. It is found 
abundantly in the lungs of foetal animals, but not in bone or nervous 
tissue; neither does it exist in glandular structures save in their epithe¬ 
lial cells. Not even in the liver itself is it found during the early months 
of intra-uterine life. At the time of birth it has disappeared in some, and 
I believe I may say notably diminished in all the tissues in which it 
exists during uterine life. But to what extent and at what rate it dis¬ 
appears shortly before birth are matters for further investigation, 
and of investigation requiring time ; inasmuch as there is some 
difficulty in procuring foetuses in sufficient numbers and sufficiently 
fresh, as the substance to be estimated is prone to decomposition 
from keeping. 
LVIII.—Wild and Tame Cattle oe Cambodia. 
* Among the Huminantia, Cambodia has six species of Deer, three 
of wild cattle, and the Buffalo. Perhaps the most interesting 
novelty in East Indian Zoology to be found in Cambodia is the three 
species of Bovidce. They are named by the people, ngua hating , 
ngua deng , and ngua dam. The first species is a rare animal of 
colossal size, with enormous horns. Its colour is black, and its 
motion is described as a continuous jump. Erom its great strength, 
it is much feared by the two other species, and even, it is said, by the 
Bhinoceros,* which cannot withstand its force and agility. The 
* Probably the Rhinoceros sondaicus ; but the two-horned h. surnatranus is 
likely also to be found in Cambodia, as elsewhere in the Indo-Chinese region. Vide 
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. xxxi. (1862), p. 151. 
