ANALYSIS OF THE TOMATO. 
165 
PARTIAL QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE TOMATO, (LYCOPER- 
SICUM ESCULENTUM— SOLANUM LYCOPERSICUM). 
By Jno. T. Plummer, M. D., of Richmond, la. 
I have long wondered why the acid of a fruit so extensively 
used as the tomato, should not have heretofore been determined. 
My earliest supposition was, that the character of the acid had 
been ascertained, but that the course of my reading had not brought 
the analysis into my view. But years have past, and I have not 
yet met with the slightest allusion to the quality of the acid, until 
to-day, in turning over the pages of the Transactions of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association, I perceive that Dr. Porcher reports that 
this " fruit contains a peculiar acid." I have italicised the word 
" peculiar," because it implies, that whoever attempted the analy- 
sis must have failed to determine the true character of the acid ; 
for, so far from being peculiar to the tomato, it is common to very 
many acid fruits. 
It may be that the reporter did not wish to imply that a chemical 
examination of the acid had been made ; but that, selecting his 
adjective rather carelessly, he merely intended to signify, that the 
fruit contained an acid — an agreeable acid, or an unknown acid. 
Be this as it may, it appears that the Association gave, on this oc- 
casion, no additional information on the subject. The fact that 
the hundreds of intelligent physicians, who composed the Associa- 
tion, allowed the statement to pass without note or comment, is 
presumptive evidence that the character of the tomato acid was 
not known to them. And if not known to them, to whom was it 
likely to be known ? 
Assuming, then, that no examination of the acid in question has 
been made public, I proceed to give the result of my own re- 
searches into the subject. 
Every attentive person must have perceived, that the agreeable 
flavor of the tomato is due to the semi-transparent mass that occu- 
pies and often fills the seed cavities, and envelopes the seed. In 
this translucent pulp, the acid is to be found. The parenchyma- 
tous portion of the fruit does indeed contain acid enough to redden 
litmus, but not enough to be perceptible to the taste. 
The yellow tomato was the variety upon which I operated. 
