102 
Varieties. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm^ 
Feb.,  1879. 
water  twice  a  day  5  the  casein  was  then  separated  by  adding  acetic  acid  and  boiling, 
and  was  washed  with  water. 
The  purified  albuminoid  matter  is  heated  at  440,  with  five  times  its  weight  of 
water  containing  3-1000  of  H2S04,  and  the  quantity  of  pepsin  requisite  to  secure 
rapid  digestion.  After  three  or  four  days  the  liquid  is  filtered,  freed  from  all  its  sul- 
phuric acid  by  baryta  and  evaporated  at  6o°  to  700.  Alcohol  is  gradually  added  to 
the  syrupy  residue  until  the  liqnid  becomes  turbid  and  separates,  on  standing,  into 
two  layers  •  the  lower  consists  of  a  little  impure  peptone,  and  contains  the  greater 
part  of  the  coloring  matters.  The  upper  layer  is  poured  in  a  fine  stream  into  six. 
times  its  volume  of  98  per  cent,  alcohol,  which  is  meanwhile  vigorously  stirred  •  the 
peptone  which  settles  down  is  dissolved  in  a  little  water  and  precipitated  by  alcohol, 
and  this  process  is  repeated  The  peptone  is  then  treated  with  absolute  alcohol,  first 
cold  and  then  warm,  and  finally  several  times  with  ether.  These  treatments  with, 
alcohol  and  ether  render  insoluble  a  small  quantity  of  albuminoids,  which  remain  as 
a  residue  on  re-dissolving  in  water  5  one  more  precipitation  with  alcohol  yields  a 
peptone  perfectly  soluble  in  water.  A  trace  of  impurity,  detected  by  a  slight  tur- 
bidity being  produced  with  acetic  acid  and  potassium  ferrocyanide,  can  be  entirely 
removed  by  dialysis,  continued  for  about  ten  days.  A  small  quantity  of  peifectly 
pure  peptone  was  thus  obtained. 
The  peptones  prepared  from  fibrin,  albumin  and  casein  are  amorphous,  infusible,, 
white  powders,  very  soluble  in  water  and  in  glacial  acetic  acid.  They  behave  like 
feeble  amidated  acids.  In  an  acetic  solution  of  the  peptones  sulphuric,  hydrochloric 
or  nitric  acid  produces  at  once  an  abundant  white  precipitate,  consisting  of  a  salt  of 
the  peptone,  corresponding  to  the  acid  used.  The  different  peptones  show  no  differ- 
ence in  their  reactions •  they  differ  from  albuminoids  in  being  less  easily  coagulated 
and  precipitated  •  they  very  nearly  resemble  gelatin,  but  their  hot  solutions  do  not 
set  on  cooling.  The  peptones  prepared  from  albumin,  fibrin  and  casein  show  diff- 
erent rotatory  powers,  that  from  albumin  causing  least,  and  that  from  casein  most 
rotation.  So  long,  therefore,  as  the  albuminoids  which  differ  in  their  rotatory  power 
are  allowed  to  be  different  varieties,  we  must  also  admit  the  existence  of  varieties  of" 
peptones. — Journ.  Chem.  Soc  ,  Dec,  1878,  from  Compt.  Rend.,  lxxxvi,  p.  1413-1416. 
VARIETIES. 
Honey,  recently  sent  to  England  in  the  comb  for  the  first  time,  reached  Liverpool! 
safely  on  Dec.  5th,  and  the  experiment  is  pronounced  successful.  There  were  eighty 
tons  in  one  ship,  stored— says  the  "  Pall  Mall  Gazette, "  with  some  curiosity — "by 
American  bees  themselves  into  half  a  million  neat  little  glass  side  boxes. "  That 
the  honey  was  the  partial  product  of  12, coo  swarms  of  bees,  in  which  a  large  mer- 
cantile firm  is  interested,  and  which  are  distributed  throughout  the  honey-producing 
sections  of  the  United  States  in  apiaries  of  100  swarms  each.  "There  seems  to  be 
no  limit,''1  it  says,  "to  the  provisions  with  which  America  is  prepared  to  supply  iis, 
