discovery. Notwithstanding my repeated examinations, it would be presumptuous in me to claim for my investigations a freedom from error which the greatest geometers have not escaped, especially in the face of the vastly improbable conclusion to which my analysis tends, viz. that the influence of the new planet is wholly different from that demanded by the problem whose solution led to its discovery. It may however be asked whether the attraction of Uranus might not be exhibited in the motions of Neptune, in such a way as to modify the orbit deduced from observation, and thus to reconcile it with theory; but this question cannot be answered without further investigation."

Mr. Walker's important discovery of the identity of Neptune with a star observed by Lalande, May 10, 1795, (Vol. iii, ii Ser., p. 441,) seems now amply confirmed. An examination of the original observations of Lalande, shows that he also observed the body two days previous, but as the two observations disagreed, the earlier was rejected, and the latter marked doubtful. The following communication on the subject, by Mr. Walker, appeared in the National Intelligencer, (Washington,) of June 4, 1847.

Gentlemen,-In my letter of May 22d, announcing the confirmation of my discovery of the Lalande observation of Neptune, I remarked that the elements can now be completed, and that the computation of Neptune's perturbations would afford the means of obtaining the pure elliptic orbit round the sun from the perturbed orbit presented in elements V.

I have just completed this research by freeing them from the effect of the present action of the three great planets, (that of the others is nearly insensible,) and am now able to offer to the public the definitive elements of Neptune's orbit. They are as follows, referred as before to the mean equinox of January 1, 1847, and to mean noon Greenwich:

Elements VII. of Neptune, completed June 1st.

Elements VII. are derived entirely from the planet's recent path for nine months. The test of their correctness is, that they should represent within reasonable limits the two observations of Lalande of May 8th and May 10th, 1795. The great pains bestowed on the reduction of these observations of Lalande, by M. Victor Mauvais of the Institute of France, induce me to adopt his places of Neptune for those dates as published in the Comptes Rendus for 1847, No. 16. I have referred. them to the mean equinox of January 1, 1847. I have corrected them for parallax, but not for aberration, and have compared them with my ephemeris from Elements VII. The result is as follows:

The small difference of three minutes of arc between theory and observation for 1795, may be ascribed to the perturbations for that date, and for the fifty-two years' interval, which have been neglected.

The tropical period falls short by nearly a year of that which Professor Peirce has pointed out as necessary, in order that the Laplacian Libration should take effect. It is quite possible that a more full discussion of the perturbations may show the necessity of the Libration.

The eccentricity of Venus is 0.007, the smallest before known; that of Neptune is 0.005.

Hence it appears that the orbit of Neptune approaches nearer to a perfect circle than that of any other planet. I regard this value of the eccentricity of Neptune as conclusively established, and with this. view will quote from Le Verrier's communication made to the Institute of France on the 29th of March last on the occasion of announcing my discovery. M. Le Verrier remarks:

"We confine ourselves for the present to the remark that this smallness of the eccentricity, which would result from the calculations of M. Walker, would be incompatible with the nature of the perturbations of the planet of Herschel. But it may be that this smallness of eccentricity is not a necessary consequence of the representation of Lalande's observation."

While I feel myself honored by the notice taken of my labors by the French astronomers, I think it just to express my full belief that when they have bestowed on its present orbit the same pains as myself, they will agree with me that this smallness of eccentricity is an unavoidable consequence of the direct observations.

If we admit for the moment that my views are correct, then LeVerrier's announcement of March 29th is in perfect accordance with that of Professor Peirce of the 16th of the same month, viz. that the present visible planet Neptune is not the mathematical planet to which theory had directed the telescope. None of its elements conform to the theoretical limits. Nor does it perform the functions on which alone its existence was predicted, viz. those of removing that opprobrium of astronomers, the unexplained perturbations of Uranus.

We have it on the authority of Professor Peirce that if we ascribe to Neptune a mass of three-fourths of the amount predicted by LeVerrier, it will have the best possible effect in reducing the residual perturbations of Uranus below their former value; but will nevertheless leave them on the average two-thirds as great as before.

It is indeed remarkable that the two distinguished European astronomers, LeVerrier and Adams, should, by a wrong hypothesis, have been led to a right conclusion respecting the actual position of a planet

in the heavens. It required for their success a compensation of errors. The unforeseen error of sixty years in their assumed period was compensated by the other unforeseen error of their assumed office of the planet. If both of them had committed only one theoretical error, (not then, but now believed to be such,) they would, according to Prof. Peirce's computations, have agreed in pointing the telescope in the wrong direction, and Neptune might have been unknown for years to come. Yours, respectfully, SEARS C. WALKER.

Washington, June 1, 1847.

V. MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

1. Facts in Physiological Chemistry; by J. LIEBIG, (from a letter addressed by Baron von Liebig, to President Everett, of Harvard University.) I ought several months since to have replied to your letter communicating the interesting intelligence in relation to the action of the vapor of ether. The result of your letter to me, you have doubtless seen in the European papers. The world is filled with the magnitude of this discovery, and we are looking for the most important applications of it in surgical practice. It is a benefaction to suffering humanity, when painful operations, through a medium so simple and safe, can be performed with diminished pain; and the world is most deeply indebted to the man who first employed ether for this purpose.

I have long intended to write in acknowledgment of your friendly letter; but I desired by way of return to incorporate in reply the results of an investigation, which has been brought to a conclusion only within the last few days. It is a chemical investigation of muscle-flesh; in which I have been led to some interesting results.

The fluid in the meat of recently slaughtered animals-the flesh-fluid -is sour and contains two free acids, whose nature up to this time has been but imperfectly known. I have found that one of the acids is an organic acid, and is the same that appears in the process of the souring of milk. The other acid is phosphoric acid. Both acids are but partially free. A part is united to potash, magnesia and lime. They have been recognized in all muscle-flesh thus far examined, as well of carnivorous as of herbivorous animals.

A second ingredient, which I have found in all kinds of flesh, is a crystalline body, which was discovered in broth by Chevreul, eleven years ago, and described by him under the name Creatine. It was supposed, inasmuch as Berzelius could find nothing in the fluid expressed from flesh, that this was an accidental ingredient. But this opinion rested upon an error. Creatine is found in the flesh of all healthy

animals.

The composition of the body is such that creatine may be regarded as a compound of the body, Glycocoll-so accurately studied by Mr. Horsford and ammonia.*

Note from Prof. Horsford.-One atom of creatine equals two atoms of glycocoll and one atom of ammonia.

CH11N306=2(C4 H, NO3)+NH3.

It contains also the elements of urea, glycocoll and wood-spirit.

CH11N

30 ̧=C2H1N2O2+C1H1NO ̧+C,H ̧0.

Liebig, by boiling creatine a length of time with baryta, separated the urea (doubtless as carbonic acid and ammonia ;-C2H4 N302+2H0÷2CO2+2NH 3,)

A third ingredient which is never wanting in fresh meat is a positive organic base of constitution analogous to that of chinin, or perhaps more nearly to that of codein, which is found in opium. There are also in meat two nitrogenous acids;-altogether, a variety of bodies whose existence in the living body could have been scarcely suspected. I have described these bodies and their chemical relations in a paper which is now in press, and will detail only a few results that may be practically applied.

The presence of two fluids throughout the body of opposite chemical nature, one acid, (the flesh-fluid,) the other alkaline, (the blood and lymph), separated from each other by membranes permeable to both, must satisfy any one that in this arrangement there is a source of electricity or of an electric current. I will not herewith say, that, by consequence, electrical effects must be recognizable in the body, for we know that these as such (electrical) disappear when through any result of motion, or chemical action (decomposition or composition) is produced, and I regard the latter as dependent upon an electrical stream.

Moreover, the occurrence in flesh of creatine,-of a substance whose properties are allied to those of the active ingredient of coffee (caffeine), as also of another which has all the properties of an organic base, makes the action of medicines appear no longer so dark and mysterious. The most efficient of all medicines from the vegetable kingdom are organic bases.

If you leach finely chopped meat with cold water, you procure a red fluid and a white residue. The latter is the actual muscular fibre, and the solution contains, beside the above named bodies, a considerable quantity of albumen that may be separated as coagulum by heating the fluid to boiling.

I have found that the residue (the muscular fibre) either for itself or boiled with water is tasteless, and that the water in which the fibre has been boiled derives no taste. The fibre, by boiling, becomes hard and altogether unpalatable.

All the ingredients having odor or taste, may of course, be abstracted with cold water. They are contained in the flesh-fluid of slaughtered animals.

You will not wonder, my most Respected Sir, if I now turn to receipts for the kitchen.

It follows from the above, that one can make for himself, in a few minutes, the best and strongest broth (Fleisch-brühe, Bouillon de viande): if, e. g. a pound of finely chopped beef (mince) with a pound (pint) of cold water, be carefully mixed and then slowly heated to boiling, and the fluid separated from the solid parts by pressing through clean cloth. This broth, with the usual condiments-(broiled onions, vegetables, salt, etc.) added, will furnish a dish beyond the criticism of the most fastidious gourmand.

and there remained the organic base, mentioned in the paragraph which follows above. Its constitution, as given in a letter to Gay Lussac, and published in the Comptes Rendus for Feb. 6, is CH, NO, -and contains the eleinents of the Lactamide of Pelouze, a product of the action of dry ammonia gas upon lactic acid, CH4O4+NH2. It contains also the elements of Glycocoll and woodspirit, as above intimated.

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Longer boiling will not necessarily make the extract stronger.

If the broth be slowly evaporated over a water bath, it will become brown, and assume a fine taste like broiled meat. If evaporated (by exceedingly gentle heat) to dryness, it yields a brown mass, of which, upon a journey, for example, half an ounce would convert a pound (pint) of water into the strongest broth.

By boiling a piece of meat in the water, a separation of the solution from the insoluble ingredients takes place. The soluble ingredients go into the extract-the broth-the soup. Among these beside those bodies mentioned above, are the alkaline phosphates. The thoroughly boiled meat contains no alkaline phosphates.

Now as these salts are necessary for the formation of the blood, it is clear that the fully boiled* meat, by the loss of them, loses its capacity to become either blood, or through blood to become flesh it loses its nutriment when eaten without the juices-the extract.

In the extract the materials for the formation of albumen and fibrin, are both wanting. Alone also, it is not nourishing. Both must be eaten together. The method of roasting is obviously the best to make flesh most nutritious. But as the extract-the broth,-contains all the ingredients of the acid gastric juice, it may perhaps be the best agent to aid the process of digestion in cases of dyspepsia.

Finally, I have found that the brine which forms in the salting of meat, contains all the ingredients of the flesh-fluid. The composition of salted meat is essentially different from that of fresh meat-inasmuch as phosphoric acid, lactic acid, and the salts of these acids-together with creatine and creatinine are abstracted by being packed down in salt. The salted meat becomes partly reduced by this process to a mere supporter of respiration. This may be a source of scrofula, where, by eating salt meat, the replacement of the wasted organism is but imperfectly effected-where it loses its constitution without regaining it from the food.

The temperature in the interior of a piece of meat to be boiled or roasted, rarely exceeds 100° C. (=212° F.) The meat is done and palatable when it has been exposed to a temperature of 62° C. (144° F.), but it is in this condition, red like blood. The blood-red places-the undone portions,-were subjected at the highest to a temperature only of 60° C. (= 140° F.) At 70° to 72° C. (= 158° to 162° F.) all these places disappear. At 100° C. (=212° F.) the fibre breaks up and becomes harder. The crusty property of the meat in chewing, depends upon the quantity of albumen, which, in a coagulated condition, permeates the fibre. The flesh of old animals is deficient in albumen.

If a piece of meat be put in cold water, and this heated to boiling, and boiled till it is "done," it will become harder and have less taste, than if the same piece had been thrown into water already boiling. In the first case the matters grateful to the smell and taste, go

By this term it is intended to convey the idea of boiled till no further change occurs, or nothing more is extracted.

↑ Liebig divides food into two kinds. One serves in the formation of tissues; the other burns to sustain animal heat-as sugar and fat. The latter supports respiration.

SECOND SERIES, Vol. IV, No. 10.-July, 1847.

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