lYEISCELLANY. 
— •••{•J^^^^ 
Composition of Asses milk. — By M. Peligot. — The author has endea- 
voured to determine if chemistry is not capable of furnishing some data 
upoUjthe composition of Asses milk, which will explain the reason why it 
has been preferred by practitioners. His conclusions are the following: 
1. That this milk differs essentially from others by the greater propor- 
tion of sugar of milk, a proportion which is increased upon an average to 
6.29 for .070. M. Peligot has moreover examined the influence of food 
upon the quality of the milk. Finally he has stated, contrary to the opi- 
nion generally received, that the milk obtained from a second milking, is 
rich in solid matters, in proportion to the shortness of the interval between 
it and the first, and that from the same milking, the amount of solid mat- 
ter increases from the portion first drawn to the last. 
Journal de Pharmacie. 
Sugar of mushrooms, — Three very distinct species of sugar have been 
admitted; but at the same time one of these species has been very little 
studied, viz. the sugar of mushrooms. M. A. Bussy has made the analy- 
sis of very pure and crystalline sugars fiom cantharellus merulius and 
clavaria coralloides, and has found that these substances were nothing 
else than mannite, the properties of which they moreover possess. M. 
Malagutti on his own part, had arrived some time since at the same con- 
clusions, relatively to the sugary substance obtained from another species 
of mushroom, but the little amount which he had with which to manipu- 
late, did not allow him to draw any definite result from his experiments. 
A specimen of sugar obtained from ergot of rye, which has been re- 
garded by some naturalists as a species of fungus, in an equal degree ex- 
hibited the properties and composition of mannite. 
Journal de Pharmacie, 
Oil of the cherry laurel. — Chlorine in solution by acting upon the oil of 
bitter almonds, produces a shining neutral crystalline substance, which 
may be considered as formed of an atom of benzoic acid and two atoms of 
hydroguret of benzoic. We have witnessed the oil of cherry laurel acted 
upon in the same manner, and obtained a compound similar to the crys- 
talline substance which is furnished under the same circumstances. 
VOL. III. NO. I. 11 
