136 
GLEANINGS  FROM  GERMAN  JOURNALS. 
der's  horn-like  vegetable  albumen  (resembling  cellulose,  soluble 
in  cone.  S03?  precipitated  by  HO).  8.  A  compound  of  heli- 
anthic  acid  with  a  protein-like  body.  It  is  a  saponaceous  mass, 
swelling  up  with  water,  coagulated  by  acids,  soluble  in  hot  alco- 
hol. The  authors  suppose  that  most  so-called  vegetable  albumen 
consists  of  a  protein  body  combined  with  a  tannic  acid  (so-called 
extractive  matter.) 
9.  Cellulose.  The  seeds  yield  4-194  per  cent,  ashes,  consist- 
ing of  phosphate  of  potassa,  chloride  of  potassium,  phosphate 
of  lime  and  of  magnesia,  and  minute  portions  of  sulphuric  acid. 
—Archiv  d.  Pharm.,  July,  1859,  1-18;  Sept.,  285-288. 
Test  for  minute  quantities  of  soluble  iodides,  by  C.  W.  Hem- 
pel  To  the  liquid  contained  in  a  thin,  white  glass  tube,  some 
sesquichloride  of  iron  and  sulphuric  acid  is  added  until  the  mix- 
ture is  colorless.  A  small  portion  of  starch  paste  is  mixed  with 
it  and  allowed  to  settle.  The  starch  assumes  a  more  or  less 
reddish  color ;  -0000001  iodine  in  «5  CC.  water  still  produce  a 
pale  rose  color.  Chloroform  maybe  substituted  for  the  starch; 
it  yields  a  colored  solution  if  iodine  is  present.  If  the  iron-salt 
is  replaced  by  bichloride  of  platinum,  the  reaction  is  still  more 
striking,  the  chloroform  being  colored  not  only  by  free  iodine, 
but  also  by  finely-divided  protiodide  of  platinum  in  a  finely- 
divided  state.  If  chloride  of  palladium  is  employed,  the  colora- 
tion is  occasioned  solely  by  iodide  of  palladium,  which  by  some 
agitation  readily  rises  to  the  surface  of  the  chloroform,  there 
forming  a  colored  stratum.  Bichloride  of  platinum  is  the  best 
test  for  iodine  in  mineral  waters,  which,  on  account  of  the 
organic  matter,  had  to  be  acidulated  with  muriatic  acid. — Ann. 
d.  Chem.  and  Pharm.  xxix.  260-262,  xxxi,  102-110. 
Decomposition  of  urea  by  nitrites. — Prof.  Ludwig  and  A.  Kro- 
mayer  have  found  (Archiv  d.  Pharm.  1859,  Oct.  1-11)  that 
nitrite  of  lead  and  nitrite  of  mercury  decompose  urea  in  the 
presence  of  free  nitric  acid,  not  into  carbonic  acid  and  nitrogen, 
as  has  been  asserted  by  Millon  and  Neubauer,  but  into  carbonic 
acid,  nitrogen  and  ammonia,  as  follows: — C2  H4  N2  02-f-N03+ 
HO,  N05=C2  04+2N+NH40,  N05+HO.  Liebig  and  Woehler 
obtained  these  results  as  early  as  1838. 
