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MISCELLANY. 
the action of these bodies on each other, and he states explicitly, that even 
when heat was applied, the precipitate is a compound of albumen and cor- 
rosive sublimate. {Nicholson's Journal, vol. xiv, p. 142.) Dr. John Davy, 
to whom I am indebted for this reference, advocates a similar opinion in 
his Physiological and Anatomical Researches. According to his experi- 
ments, no muriatic acid was disengaged or produced, nor could he induce 
a union of albumen with either the protoxide or peroxide of mercury. It 
has, however, been generally credited on the authority of Orfila, that a 
decomposition takes place, and that the resulting compound consists of 
albumen, muriatic acid and calomel. He grants, however, in the third 
edition of his Lecons, (vol. i. p. 301,) that the resulting calomel is never 
applied in the form of powder to the membranes of the alimentary canal, 
nor has it the physical properties of calomel, since it is intimately com- 
bined with the substance which has been the cause of its formation, and 
thus constitutes a ternary chemical compound. I have also mentioned, in 
another place, the cases of Olivier and Barruel, who, in persons poisoned 
with corrosive sublimate and to whom milk and albumen had been admi- 
nistered as antidotes, could detect no calomel ; but the tests indicated the 
presence of corrosive sublimate, a portion of which was probably still un- 
decomposed. 
Dr. Turner (Chemistry, 5th edit., p. 937,) also states, that Rose, in a 
late analysis, proved the resulting precipitate to consist of oxide of mer- 
cury and albumen. 
The latest experimenter is Lassaigne. He asserts, from a series of ob- 
servations, that in the action of albumen on metallic salts, this principle 
unites directly wilh these compounds without producing any decomposition. 
It forms compounds with them, which are insoluble in water, when these 
bodies are in certain proportions, but susceptible of solution when the al- 
bumen or the metallic salt is in excess. And these compounds he deno- 
minates albuminates. {American Journal of Pharmacy, vol. xii. p. 170, 
from the Journal de Chimie Medicate.) 
We have reason to fear, from these results, that the value of albumen, 
as a chemical antidote, will be somewhat impaired. Still its use should 
not by any means be omitted, but it should be administered as early as 
possible and in large quantities. T. R. B. 
American Joum. Med. Sciences^ 
