MILL-WRIGHTS,

BRASS AND IRONFOUNDERS,

ST. HELEN'S FOUNDRY, LANCASHIRE.

Makers of every description of Chemical, Colliery, Copper Ore, Gold

Mining and Glass Machinery, including Crown, German Sheet, and Plate Glass Plant, as supplied to some of the largest Firms in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

Makers of the latest Improved Revolving Black Ash Furnace with Siemens's Patent Gas Arrangement, and as used in the Manu ac ture of Soda.

Improved Valveless Air Engines, and Pumps or Acid Forcing, Air Agitators, Compressors for Collieries, and Weldon's Patent Chlorine Process.

Caustic, Chlorate, Decomposing, and Oxalic Pans.

Gas Producers for Heating Furnaces.

Pyrites Burners for Irish, Norwegian, and Spanish Ores.
Retorts, Acid Gas, Nitre, Nitric Acid, and Vitriol Refining.
Improved Steam Superheaters for Resin Refining, &c.
Improved Steam Sulphur Pans.

THE CHEMICAL NEWS.

VOL. XXXII. No. 820.

SOME FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE
SPECTRA OF LIGHTNING.
By J. W. CLARK.

ABOUT 10.30 in the evening of August the 8th (Sunday) a few flashes of sheet lightning were seen in the south, but nothing more was observed until 1.30 a.m. Monday morning, when, from a window facing the east, bright and frequent flashes were visible. The sky was partially clouded over, and the wind occasionally very high.

In a previous number of the CHEMICAL NEWS (vol. xxx., p. 29) are recorded the results of my previous observations on the spectrum of sheet lightning: the following confirm and extend them. The observations were made with one of Browning's hand spectroscopes. At first the slit was wide, but, as the flashes became more brilliant and more frequent, it was gradually narrowed, whilst leaving the spectrum sufficiently bright. Many of the flashes exhibited only the centre of the spectrum, which was of a bluish white colour, and varied slightly in length. With the most brilliant flashes, however, the red end of the spectrum was bright, whilst the middle and blue end (when present) was of the same bluish white colour throughout.

Shortly after 2 o'clock the sky became more clouded, and the sheet lightning was gradually succeeded by brilliant forked lightning, which, with a narrow slit, gave a very bright continuous spectrum of normal appearance. On one occasion the red end of the spectrum appeared traversed with two or three red lines, and the green with a few atmospheric absorption lines in two other cases. These three observations are, however, not very reliable.

Towards the close of the storm, which accompanied the forked lightning, 0.395 of an inch of rain and hail fell* in about twenty-five minutes; but soon after 3 o'clock the sky was clear, but occasional appearances of sheet lightning were visible until nearly 4 o'clock.

That no lines should have been observed in the spectrum of the forked lightning, and no bands in that of the sheet lightning, is somewhat remarkable, as a large number of observations were made between 1.30 and 3 o'clock, during a considerable part of which time the flashes of lightning were so frequent as to be almost continuous, and a great many were of unusual brilliancy.

ANALYSIS OF THE SULPHUR WELL, BALLYNAHINCH SPA.†

By Dr. ANDREWS, F.R.S. L. & E.

THE waters of the Ballynahinch Spa have enjoyed a local reputation for more than a century, and are still resorted to by visitors and invalids from Belfast and the surrounding district. No analysis, except an imperfect one by Sir R. Kane, has been published, so far as I know, of the Sulphur Well. The water examined by that able chemist must have been altered by keeping, as no mention is made in the analysis of any of the constituents upon which the active properties of the water depend. The following analysis refers to the Sulphur or Lower Well, and was made so long ago as 1809. The temperature of the well, about 11 o'clock on July 21 of that year was 9'5° C., or 49'1° F. The amount of sulphides was careRecorded by the Meteorological Department of the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, not far from which these observations were made.

From the Proceedings of the Belfast Philosophical Society.

Bicarbonate of calcium
Bicarbonate of magnesium
Sulphate of magnesium
Chloride of magnesium

Chloride of sodium
Sulphide of potassium
Sulphide of sodium

Silica

Organic matter

Saline constituents

passage:

"Soon after the discovery of oxygen gas, a strong feeling arose in favour of its medicinal applications. Various diseases, e.g., scurvy, were ascribed to a deficiency of it in the system, and it was accordingly employed in many cases, and, as was at first declared, with brilliant results. In England, it was tried by Beddoes and Hill. The latter declares that he found it useful in asthma, weakness, ulcers, gangrene, white swellings, and scrofu lous affections of the bones. These views have been again abandoned, both on chemical and physiological grounds. In asphyxia, from want of air, or from the inspiration of pernicious gases, oxygen gas may be inhaled with advan

"Berichte über die Entwickelung der Chemischen Industrie Während des Letzten Jahrzehends."

Pereira, "Heil Mittel Lehre;" Buchheim's German edition, vol. i. P. 217. Verbal communication from Professor Oscar Liebreich. "Considerations on the Use of Factitious Air and on the Manner of Obtaining them in Large Quantities," by F. Beddoes and J. Watt; Bristol, 1794-95. It is well known that, in 1798, a Pneumatic Institute was founded at Bristol, in which the medicinal properties of gases were examined, and where Humphry Davy discovered the effects of I nitrous oxide.

66

{CHEMICAL NEWS,

August 13, 1875.

Nevertheless, an 'Inhalatorium," recently opened in Berlin, sells oxygen at 6 silver groschen per cubic foot (20 marks per cubic metre), and oxygenated water at silver groschen per bottle.* As water at o° does not absorb 4 per cent of its volume, a half-litre bottle does not contain 20 c.c., or o'0017 grm., of the gas! To expect any effect from such a dose appears irrational.

Just as concentrated food is recommended for travellers, so oxygen has been proposed to be inhaled by those who climb the highest summits of mountains or attain altitudes in balloons where the rarefaction of the atmosphere occasions dangerous affections. + P. Bert has exposed himself and others, in a suitable apparatus, to dilutions of air far surpassing that encountered at the greatest altitudes hitherto reached. The difficulty of breathing and the symptoms of suffocation which appeared when the barometer indicated 300 to 250 m.in. were relieved, according to his account, by a single inspiration of pure oxygen. Dilution of oxygen with atmospheric air was found more advantageous than the pure gas; and on a balloon voyage which Croce-Spinelli and Sivel undertook from Paris, March 22nd, 1874, they took with them mixtures of 45 and 75 per cent of oxygen (and therefore 55 and 25 of nitrogen). With the aid of this mixture they were able to conduct valuable physical observations at leisure, and without bodily inconvenience, at the height of more than 6000 metres; and although Glaisher succeeded, without this auxiliary, in attaining still greater heights, it cannot be denied that oxygen gas affords the means of exploring atmospheric regions hitherto unknown.

The physiological applications of oxygen lead us naturally to that modification which bears the name of ozone, with which, in the outset, high therapeutical hopes were connected. (To be continued.)

IN THE

ON GLYCOGEN AND GLYCOCOLL MUSCULAR TISSUE OF PECTEN IRRADIANS.||| By RUSSELL H. CHITTENDEN, Assistant in Physiological Chemistry, Yale College.

THE genus Pecten is world-wide in its distribution. The species irradians is entirely American, being found most abundantly on the eastern shores of the United States. It is closely allied to the European and English species opercularis and maximus. The large central muscle which closes the valves of this mollusc is highly valued as an article of food, although its peculiar sweet taste is objectionable to some. With this central muscle the following experiments were made :

Glycogen.-By extracting the edible portion of the scollop with cold water, a milky opaque fluid with slight acid reaction is obtained, and an insoluble residue consisting principally of cyntonin or fibrin mixed with inorganic matters. The strong opacity of the aqueous solution is not due to an emulsion of fatty matters. boiling the solution with or without the addition of acetic acid, a large amount of albumen is precipitated, leaving the fluid still opalescent. On treating the fluid, after the removal of albumen, with a small amount of 95 per cent

* Eight silver groschen-four-fifths of a shilling sterling.
+ Fonvielle, "La Science en Ballon;" Paris, 1809.

: Bert, Comptes Rendus, 1874, p. 911.

Communicated by the Author.

On

dissolves by agitation, leaving the fluid unaltered in appearance; but, if three or four volumes of the alcohol are added, a copious permanent precipitate settles, leaving the supernatant fluid perfectly clear. This precipitate is of snowy whiteness, except when previous to precipitation the fluid has been boiled considerably, in which case both filtrate and precipitate assume a yellow or brownish colour, from which the latter can be freed by solution in cold water and re-precipitation by alcohol. The precipitate, if allowed to dry in contact with air, after having been washed with alcohol merely, soon becomes translucent on the edges, and finally is transformed completely into a gummy mass which is sticky when moistened; but, if after precipitation it is washed with ether thoroughly, it loses this property of becoming gummy, which seems to be due to the presence of water and of albuminous matters in small quantity. This gum-like mass, when hard, is brittle, and yields, on trituration, a white hygroscopic powder showing under the microscope no distinct structure. A portion of the precipitate so prepared, dried in the air, yielded by analysis:—

In this state it is not quite pure, giving with Millon's reagent a strong reaction for albumen, and containing some inorganic matter-one specimen 157 per cent, another 138 per cent-consisting in all cases, so far as were examined, of calcium phosphate. From this analysis it is seen that the substance has the formula of the sugars, or that of the starch group plus a molecule of water. The substance is tasteless, gummy when moistened, and gives an opaque fluid with water, seemingly a true solution, which passes unchanged through filter-paper and animal charcoal, and shows no particles under the microscope with a half-inch objective. When this aqueous solution is boiled, thin films separate, forming a scum on the top of the fluid, which goes into solution again as the liquid becomes cool. The substance is insoluble in alcohol and ether, has no reducing action with cupric sulphate and sodium hydroxide, but, when boiled with a few drops of dilute hydrochioric acid, gives a clear fluid which has strong reducing action. This same reaction takes place also with nitric and sulphuric acids, but not so readily as with the former. A portion of the substance was treated with a small quantity of saliva at the ordinary temperature and at 40° C., and in both cases the ptyalin acted immediately upon it and sugar was formed. Treated with a solution of iodine in potassium iodide, a brownish red or maroon colour was obtained. These and other reaction s pointed to glycogen. It was yet to be ascertained whether the sugar formed by the action of acids and ferments was glucose, also to examine the action of boiling dilute nitric acid upon it, and to determine whether the different formula of glycogen could be obtained by drying it at different temperatures. A portion of the substance was then boiled with hydrochloric acid until alcohol produced no precipitate in a sample tested, the excess of acid removed by oxide of silver and the sugar obtained by evaporation. The product had all the properties of glucose, was intensely sweet, reduced alkaline solutions of copper and silver, and yielded Pettenkofer's reaction. Analysed, it gave the following result:

Calculated. Call 12O+ HO.

3636

7:07

56.57

44°32 6.38 49'30

2.

44'40

6'41 49°19

Analysis of Starch Dried at 140° C. by Mulder.

44'47 6.28

On treating an aqueous solution of the substance at the ordinary temperature with an excess of a saturated solution of barium hydroxide, a heavy white precipitate was obtained, soluble in water, insoluble in baryta water and alcohol. This precipitate was dissolved in water, the baryta removed by a little dilute sulphuric acid in the cold, and then re-precipitated by an excess of alcohol.

Prepared thus, it seemed to have lost the property of becoming gummy so readily as before, and on examination was found to be completely free from albuminous matters, giving no reaction even with Millon's reagent, and also contained only o'61 per cent of ash. The substance, dried at 100° C., gave, by analysis, the following result, agreeing closely with that of the preceding preparation dried at the same temperature:

Since this result was obtained, I find that M. Bizio* has already discovered glycogen in some invertebrates. Among the molluscs, he found it in considerable quantity in the oyster.

With glycogen from these sources he prepared a lead compound by means of tribasic acetate of lead, and says its analysis has given me the formula C12H18PbO10," which requires

It will be seen at once that my result does not agree with this formula. I therefore made some further lead precipitates from the same and other preparations of glycogen, and in these simply determined the lead as follows:1st Prep. 2nd Prep. 3rd Prep. 4th Prep. 48.39 53663 51'45 48.34 53'58 51'45

Pb. No. I.. No. 2..

50'27 50.28

Some glycogen was also prepared from the liver of an ox by the usual method and dried at 100°. It yielded, by analysis:

Calculated. C12H22O11

41'90

42.11

6.38

6.43

51772

51.46

I.

2.

Casting a backward glance, we see that the analysis of the air-dried substance corresponds with the formula C6H12O6, that of the substance dried at 140° C. with C6H10O5, which requires 44'44 C, 611 H. These results agree with glycogen, which in different states of hydration has been found to have the formula C6H1005, C6H12O6, and C6H107. But the results obtained by the analyses

of the substance dried at 100° C. and 110°-120° C. do not agree closely with any of the above formula. The same is true of members of the starch group to which glycogen is closely related, and lately Dr. Nägeli has published a paper in which he points out that the elementary composition of starch, dextrin, and "amylo-dextrin," dried at temperatures not exceeding 116, agrees better with the formula C36H62031, which requires 43'63 C, 63 H, than with C6H10O5, and that after exposure to a temperature of 140° C., when the composition corresponds to C6H1005 we probably do not deal with undecomposed starch. The analysis of amylo-dextrin by Nägeli (loc. cit., p. 35), dried in a stream of hydrogen, at a temperature of 112° to 116° C., gave the following result:

These results indicate that the composition of the precipitate is not constant.

The amount of glycogen occurring in this muscular portion of the scollop is quite large; at one time, from 3 quarts 160 grms. were obtained; at another, 2 quarts yielded 70 grms.

Glycocoll.-On evaporating the alcoholic filtrate from the precipitated glycogen until quite concentrated, and adding neutral lead acetate, a heavy white precipitate is produced, which is a combination of inorganic matters

with the lead. The excess of lead is then removed from the filtrate by hydrogen sulphide, and after concentration the liquid is decolourised by animal cha-coal. On further evaporation, the fluid deposits white prismatic crystals. The crystals have a sweet taste, but, upon ignition with soda-lime, ammonia is evolved, evincing the presence of nitrogen, which at once separates it from the saccharine group. The crystals first obtained were not quite pure, but after treatment with animal charcoal and re-crystallisation gave, by analysis, a result corresponding to the composition of glycocoll. Two more distinct preparations were made, and gave, by analysis: