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quantity of ether added to it, which caused a dense milkiness. After some hours globular or stellate deposits of white and mostly opaque crystals were formed on the sides and bottom of the vessel, while the liquid became clear. If too much ether was added a small quantity of syrup of uncrystallizable sugar (?) gathered in globules at the bottom of the liquid.

The crystals thus obtained were further purified by recrystalli zation, they possess a pure and intense sweet taste, are very hard, brittle, and unless pulverized, dissolve but slowly in boiling alcohol. In the mother liquors accumulated a substance of bitter

taste.

After having procured these crystals in a state of purity and remarked their non-identity with mannite, &c., Berthelot's paper on several new sugars (Compt. Rend. 1855, No. 12, p. 452, t. XLI,) came to hand. This chemist describes the body in question under the name of Pinite. He relates that it is yielded by the Pinus lambertiana of California, and exudes from cavities made by the aid of fire, near the roots of the tree. According to Berthelot, "it possesses right polarization and is incapable of fermentation even after treatment with sulphuric acid. Its analysis led to the formula C12H12010. Acetate of lead-oxyd ammonia precipitates from its solutions the compound C12H12O10 4Pb.O. It is isomeric with Quercite, but differs from that body in crystal form, and has greater solubility and sweetness." The quantity at my disposal was so small that I only attempted to make an ultimate analysis; my results were slightly vitiated by the fracture of the combustion tube, after the burning was complete, but before the CO2 had been fully carried into the potash bulbs.

Below are the obtained numbers compared with those required by Berthelot's formula.

Calc.

Found

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In another paper, Berthelot describes a large number of compounds of sugars with acids. Among these are the acid and neutral stearates and benzoates of Pinite. He has further found that when these compounds are saponified there is obtained the original acid, and, not pinite, but a substance which gradually passes into pinite.

The name pinite is very objectionable, as identical in orthography with one appellation of a mineral which is overloaded with

synonyms.

ART. III.-On the Composition of the Muscles in the Animal Series; by MM. VALENCIENNES and FREMY.*

THE articles lately published by us on the composition of eggs, show that a comparative study of subjects related in organization, running through the different classes of the animal kingdom, is always a source of much interest alike to zoology and chemistry. Taking up the eggs of the principal groups of animals, we pointed out fundamental differences in composition which zoology should hereafter regard, and besides, we gave the general characteristics of a new class of organic substances, designated by us under the name of vitellin substances, which chemistry and physiology cannot confound with the albuminous substances.

Associating still our labors-which enables us to handle questions within the provinces both of zoology and chemistry,-we have proposed to ourselves to extend to the muscular fibre the mode of research which we have bestowed on eggs, that is, to endeavor to exhibit, by a comparative study, the differences of the muscles in chemical composition. A general examination of the whole animal series should then give us tolerably precise notions of the nature of the proximate principles found in the muscular fibre, as well as of the analytical processes by which they may be isolated.

Through our joint research, we have established several important facts which are brought out in this our first communication on the subject.

The muscular fibre of the vertebrate animals, which we first examined, was separated with the greatest care by anatomical processes from the white aponeurotic or tendinous fibres, from the nervous cords, the principal blood vessels, and also from the fat which it contains in considerable amount. The proximate principle which first appears in the analysis of the muscles of the Vertebrata is creatin, the discovery of which, as is well known, is due to M. Chevreul. Then come inosic acid and creatinin, which have been described with so much discrimination and care by M. Liebig. In this part of our researches, we can only confirm the labors of the well known chemists just named. We will mention, however, that creatinin appears to us more abundant in the animal economy than is generally supposed; we have ascertained its presence in the muscular fibre of almost all the Vertebrata; it is often found in a free state, and is shown by a very marked alkaline reaction; we have found it too combined with phosphoric acid. Our attention was next drawn to * Translated from the Journal de Pharmacie for December, 1855, p. 401, &c., by Dr. J. Rosengarten.

SECOND SERIES, Vol. XXII, NO. 64.—JULY, 1856.

2

the substance which gives acidity to the muscles of all the Vertebrata, we thought it of interest to isolate this principle and to analyze it. The result of our researches in this direction is, that if in some cases, the acidity of the muscles is due to lactic acid, that which makes the muscular fibre strongly acid is ordinarily a phosphate of potash, having, according to our analysis, the formula, KO, 2ĤO, PÓ. We obtained this salt in a crystallized condition by treating the muscles with weak alcohol and rating the liquor to a syrupy consistence.

evapo

While determining the proportion of this salt in the muscles of different animals, we observed evidence of some connection with the formation of the osseous system; that is, we always found it largely in animals in which the bones are very much developed, and very slightly in the Articulata and Mollusca. The part which this salt takes in the formation of bones is now clear; for we have directly ascertained that in reacting on carbonate of lime, the phosphate of potash from the muscles, forms the basic phosphate of lime, which is so considerable a part of the bony substance. This phosphate of potash is not, perhaps, without effect in the production of a phosphuretted fatty matter that exists in the muscles, which will be mentioned farther on; we think, however, that under these circumstances, it deserves the attention of physiologists. The muscles of the vertebrated animals are impregnated with a considerable quantity of fatty bodies made up of varying proportions of olein, margarin, and stearin. Besides these neutral fatty bodies, another is always found, which differs from the substances properly called fat by a number of peculiarities, and presents some analogy to the cerebral fat. We have made a tolerably complete examination of this interesting substance. It was extracted easily by treating the muscles with weak alcohol, which dissolves it without altering the other fatty bodies. This liquid, when evaporated, gives a viscous amber-colored substance, which partly dissolves in water; treated with sulphuric acid, it decomposes like a soap, giving sulphate of soda and an acid heavier than water. This acid contains both azote and phosphorus; analyzed, it afforded exactly the composition which one of us obtained from the cerebral fat, called oleophosphoric acid.

The phosphuretted fat which exists in the muscles, is therefore identical with that which is found so plentifully in the brain, and is produced, like the latter, by the combination of soda and oleophosphoric acid. This substance can now be said to be found in every part of the animal organization. We have established that its proportion in the muscular tissue increases with the age of the animal, and it is as various as the different species of the vertebrate animals. Fishes, such as the whiting, the dab, the flounder, have only a very small proportion, while species having a

compact body, with a strong taste, generally difficult to digest, like the mackerel, herring, trout, and, most of all, salmon, have a large quantity. It is this phosphuretted substance which, by decomposing incompletely through the action of heat, gives to broiled fish its characteristic smell.

While studying this substance in the muscles of fish, we have been naturally led to examine the red matter which colors the muscles of salmon, that which, in trout and some other fish, produces the 'saumonage.' This remarkable change of color is partly dependent on the phenomenon of reproduction. The salmon, for instance, is red-skinned all the year, but its muscles become perceptibly paler at the time of spawning. This discoloration is still more distinct in trout, for when they spawn the skin becomes quite white. While the spawning does not occur at the same time, the female 'salmons' itself a deeper red, and keeps this color longer than the male; and often in the same stream there are taken white trout and salmon trout. This shows too that the salmon trout is not the mongrel of the trout and salmon; besides, the fecundation of one of these fish by the other is out of the question since the salmon spawns in July and rarely in August, while the trout spawns in December.

The coloring matter of the muscles of a salmon attracted the attention of Sir Humphrey Davy; in the work by this famous chemist, entitled Salmonia, it is said that the skin of a salmon can be discolored by ether. But even till now, this coloring matter has not been isolated. It is this which we attempt to accomplish. From our researches, we find this coloring matter to be of a fatty nature, presenting the characteristics of a weak acid, which we call salmonic acid, and that it dissolves in a neutral oil. In order to isolate salmonic acid, we used the following means: the red oil which is easily got from the muscles of a salmon by a press, was agitated cold with alcohol feebly ammoniated; the oil then becomes colorless, and the alcohol takes the coloring matter, which is separated by decomposing the ammoniacal salt with an acid. The acid thus obtained is viscous, red, and presents all the characteristics of a fatty acid; it is the same in the salmon-trout as in the muscles of a salmon. We have found it in considerable quantity and mixed with oleophosphoric acid in the eggs of salmon, which partly accounts for the discoloration and loss of smell in the flesh of a salmon when it lays. The female of the Salmo hamatus Val., does not afford as much acid, either salmonic or oleophosphoric, as the common salmon (Salmo salmo Val.): the muscles of fish show therefore in species most nearly allied appreciable differences in their composition.

It was of interest to compare the muscles of Crustacea with those of fish. In order to work at the muscular flesh of the for

mer, pure and without any mixture of other organs, we chose the mass of muscles bundled together in the tail, taking care to put aside the extremity of the intestinal canal and the nervous cord which follows it.

The muscles thus prepared, were submitted to the action of different solvents, especially alcohol and ether. They proved to be simpler in composition than those of the Mammalia, and presented some analogy to the muscles of fish. The phosphate of potash which is so largely found in the former, hardly occurs in the Crustacea; the oleophosphoric acid exists however in as considerable quantity as in the muscles of fish. We obtained also creatin and creatinin from the muscles of several different kinds of crustaceous animals.

To complete this general study of the muscles of different animals, it remained to examine the Mollusca, which on analysis, afforded a remarkable and unlooked for fact. To enable us to compare these analytical results with those we had arrived at in the other animals, we used great care in the preparation of the muscular tissue of the mollusks intended for our experiments. For example, in working on the large muscle of the Cephalopods, we took away the bone of the cuttle fish, and the tail of the 'calmar,' we put aside all the membranes which touch the cavity enclosing the secretions, and we raised the cartilages which operate on the corresponding tubercles of the body, in the movements of these large muscles. In the acephalous molluscs we took only the large abductor muscles of the valves. In one word, avoiding all the products of the secretions, and all the organs of complex composition so plentiful in these animals, which are so often called simple bodies, our analyses were applied to the pure muscular fibre of the Mollusca, from the order of the Cephalopoda to that of the Acephala. The delicacy of the preparations had a great influence on the nicety of the analytic results which we are now to make known.

The muscles of mollusks presented a much simpler composition than those of the vertebrated animals, for they do not contain any appreciable quantity of phosphate of potash, of oleophosphoric acid, of creatin or of creatinin: these proximate principles are replaced by a crystalline material which is obtained as plentifully from oysters as from the cuttle-fish, and may be called a characteristic of the muscles of these animals. It is much more soluble in boiling water than in cold, insoluble in alcohol and ether, combines with neither acids nor bases, and resists the action of nitric acid. When submitted to the action of heat, it gives all the products which result from the decomposition of organic azotized substances, and with sulphuric acid, affords both the sulphite and the sulphate of ammonia. The presence of sulphur in the crystalline matter of the mollusks has been confirmed by the analyses, which resulted thus:

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