ON  BETAIN,  ETC. 
559 
mushrooms  give  off,  while  growing  viorously,  weighable  quan- 
tities of  ammonia  ;  (2)  this  evolution  of  ammonia  is  not  confined 
to  full-grown  mushrooms  only,  but  also  to  the  young  individuals, 
and  even  to  some  varieties  of  mushroom  spawn  ;  (3)  this  evolu- 
tion of  ammonia  is  a  proper  function  of  the  living  organism  of 
these  cryptogamic  vegetables,  and  is  very  little,  if  at  all,  in- 
fluenced by  exterior  causes ;  (4)  there  is  no  direct  relation  be- 
tween the  quantity  of  ammonia  and  that  of  carbonic  acid  given 
off  during  a  given  period  of  time.  The  quantity  of  ammonia 
given  off  during  a  certain  length  of  time  bears  no  direct  relation 
to  the  weight  of  the  substance  from  which  it  is  given  off. — Chem. 
Neivs^  August  27,  1869,  from  Bulletin  de  VAcademie  Imperiale 
des  Sciences  de  St.  Peter sbourg,  Vol.  xiv,  No.  1. 
ON  BETAIN,  A  NEW  VEGETABLE  BASE  MET  WITH  IN 
THE  JUICE  OF  SUGAR  BEET-ROOTS  {BETA  VULGARIS.) 
By  M.  C.  Scheibler. 
The  author  says,  in  the  year  1866  he  published  a  brief  ac- 
count about  a  vegetable  base  met  with  in  the  juice  of  the  sugar 
beet-roots,  and  which  base,  on  account  of  .its  great  solubility, 
becomes  accumulated  during  the  sugar  manufacture  from  beet- 
root juice,  in  the  molasses  which  result  from  that  process.  The 
author  has  prepared  this  base  from  the  freshly  expressed  juice 
of  the  sugar  beet-root,  as  well  as  from  the  molasses.  The  pro- 
cess of  separation  is,  as  might  be  expected  from  the  complex 
nature  of  the  substances  just  named,  very  complicated,  and  re- 
quires the  use  of  phospho-molybdate  of  soda.  Since  in  this 
country  there  do  not  exist  beet-root  sugar  works,  and  since  large 
quantities  of  juice  have  to  be  operated  upon,  we  do  not  enter  into 
the  details  of  preparation,  but  describe  the  new  base  hetain.  It 
is  a  solid  substance,  crystallising  from  its  alcoholic  solution  in 
large  crystals,  which  are  very  deliquescent,  and  contain  water  of 
crystallisation,  which  they  lose  by  drying  at  100°  or  over  strong 
sulphuric  acid  ;  the  base  is  very  soluble  in  water,  its  solution 
saturated  at  25°  has  a  specific  gravity  of  1-1177,  and  then  con- 
tains 61-8  per  cent,  of  the  anhydrous  base.    Betai'n  does  not 
1 
