NOTE  ON  CANADIAN  ISINGLASS. 
133 
cake  left  in  the  presses  is  nearly  pure  palmitic  acid — it  is  bril- 
liantly white,  not  at  all  greasy,  and  has  a  melting  point  at  135p 
to  138°.  It  is  fit  for  the  manufacture  of  the  finest  candles, 
either  alone  or  in  admixture  with  the  stearine  of  the  cocoa-nut 
oil. 
The  Company  employ  2000  hands,  and  have,  during  part  of 
the  winter,  manufactured  from  X15,000  to  ,£20,000  worth  of 
candles  weekly. — Trans.  Liverpool  Ohem.  Association,  in  Pharm. 
Jour.  Dec.  1855. 
NOTE  ON  CANADIAN  ISINGLASS. 
By  Professor  Owen,  F.R.  S. 
In  the  department  of  Canada  [Paris  Exhibition,  1855,]  ad- 
mirable for  its  arrangement,  and  for  the  illustrative  selection  and 
excellent  quality  of  the  products  of  that  important  Colony,  an 
article  of  commerce,  new  in  the  sense  of  its  being  unknown  to 
the  Canadians  as  a  native  production  in  1851,  is  exhibited,  of 
excellent  quality,  and  of  annually  increasing  abundance.  1 
allude  to  the  Isinglass  obtained  from  the  sturgeons  (Acipenser 
[Huso  ?])  which  abound  in  the  great  rivers  and  lakes  of  North 
America.  Noticing  the  absence  of  this  article  in  the  Canadian 
department  of  the  London  Exhibition  of  1851,  I  at  that  time 
called  the  attention  of  the  Colonial  Commissioner  to  the  fact  of 
the  existence  in  Canada  of  the  fishes  which  yield  the  most 
valuable  kind  of  isinglass,  and  I  introduced  to  the  Commissioner 
the  Chief  London  importer  and  preparer  of  isinglass,  from  whom 
he  received  the  requisite  details  as  to  the  best  mode  of  obtaining 
and  preparing  isinglass,  and  as  to  its  commercial  value. 
My  attention  was  called  by  the  same  Commissioner  on  my 
first  visit  to  the  Canadian  department  in  the  "Exposition  Uni- 
verselle,"  to  the  specimens  there  exhibited,  and  he  gratefully 
recounted  the  success  that  had  attended  the  efforts  to  establish  a 
commerce  for  this  new  and  valuable  product,  which,  previous  to 
1851,  had  been  rejected  amongst  the  useless  entrails  of  the 
sturgeons. 
The  value  of  the  isinglass  from  this  fish  is  chiefly  due  to  its 
peculiar  organic  texture,  on  which  its  property  of  clarifying 
wines  and  beer  depends ;  no  artificial  isinglass,  however  pure 
