218 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
If evaporated by a salt water bath, an extract is obtained of 
a pale yellow colour, in weight equal to of the sago em- 
ployed, of a slightly saltish taste, and from which alcohol 
separated a crystal of muriate of soda, but of so small a size, 
that it is not to be wondered at, that this salt was not detected 
in the first instance by the nitrate of silver. 
Sago of Sumatra. 
This sago was sent to M. Planche in 1827, by M. Bussail, 
surgeon of the navy, who procured it from the localities, upon 
his voyage round the world, under the orders of M. de Bour- 
gainville. It comes from a palm which grows upon the east 
coast of Sumatra towards Malacca, where still live some 
Portuguese families who prepare it by a peculiar process. 
The sago of Sumatra occurs in very round grains, from one 
to two millimetres in diameter, some of them entirely white, 
others of a dull yellowish white. It exhales a slight odour of 
musk, which it partly loses by washing in cold water; this 
odour, however, appears to be foreign to the sago itself, for it 
is sometimes observed in the rice of Carolina, which has been 
packed when still moist. Its weight, compared with that of 
w^ater, was -/qVo ; the quantity of water absorbed by 500 grains 
was 670 grains, and its volume was more than doubled ; the 
colour after desiccation was a little paler than in the natural 
state, in other respects it had recovered its properties. 
The filtered maceratum was colourless, without decided 
taste, and underwent no modification from reagents, with the 
exception of the nitrate of silver which produced slight turbid- 
ness. The extract obtained weighed four grains, and con- 
tained an appreciable amount of muriate of soda. This sago 
is not found in commerce. 
Sago of New Guinea. 
M. Planche has received this sago from a relation of Gene- 
ral Hogendorp, M. Burvil of Rotterdam, who brought it from 
New Guinea in 1S07. Upon comparing it with that still to 
be obtained in some of the warehouses of Paris, under the 
