6. On some New Researches in Animal Chemistry, (extracted from a letter from Professor LIEBIG to Dr. A. W. HOFMANN, Phil. Mag., xxx, 412, June, 1847.)—I am at present occupied with the investigation of the constituents of the animal fluids which are found without the blood and lymphatic vessels. The fluid from flesh, for example, reacts strongly acid, and the question was, whence arose this acidity? After overcoming more difficulties than I have ever experienced in any investigation, I have for the first time indisputably proved that free lactic and phosphoric acid exist in the whole organism wherever muscle is found. How curious, that in the absence of all proofs on the part of the opponents of lactic acid, I should now demonstrate to them its existence in the flesh of oxen, fowls, calves, and sheep, by preparing and analyzing the most beautifully crystallized zinc and lime salts! How wonderful, that in the animal organism, acids and alkalies are found separated by a membrane, constituting myriads of little galvanic circles, which, as such, must produce chemical and electrical effects! To the latter class I refer all the observations of Matteucci, which can now be easily explained. 3 11 I have further found that the flesh of the muscles of oxen, fowls, sheep, calves, and the carnivorous pike, contain creatin, prepared by Chevreul eleven years ago, and which, from Berzelius's not being able to reproduce it, has since then, in a measure, disappeared from the field of science. Creatin is a beautiful substance, having the formula C,N,H,10. At the temperature of 100° C. it loses 2 equivs. of water, and becomes C ̧N ̧H,O1= glycocoll+ammonia or caffein+amidogen and water. Heated in a stream of hydrochloric acid, creatin loses four equivs. of water and takes up one of hydrochloric acid. By this treatment, however, its nature is entirely altered, being now converted into a beautiful organic base, the properties of which are totally different from those of creatin. It becomes now soluble in water, and forms with bichlorid of platinum a fine crystallized double salt. 8 3 9 4 I have, finally, discovered two other new bodies in the same fluids, of which one crystallizes in needles, the other in plates of the lustre of mother-of-pearl. Unfortunately, I have obtained scarcely sufficient for two analyses from forty lbs. of the flesh of oxen and twenty of that of fowls. I see a boundless field before me, and doubt not that for every quality of the animal body, something which can be estimated quantitatively, will also be discovered to which it is indebted for its properties. I have also satisfied myself as to the part which common salt plays in the bodies of animals. I have found that the fluids without the blood and lymphatic vessels contain only potash-salts, viz. chlorid of potas sium and phosphate of potash, with phosphate of magnesia, whilst the blood and lymph contain merely those of soda, (phosphate of soda.) If, therefore, the latter are indispensable to the formation of blood and the processes of life, it is evident that an animal on the continent, which finds in plants only potash-salts, should have chlorid of sodium given to it, by means of which the phosphate of potash of the seeds and the rest of the plant is transformed into chlorid of potassium and phosphate of soda. I found further that the salt brine which flows from salted meat contained certainly alkaline phosphates, and that scurvy is hence easily explained by the deficiency in the salted meat of the alkaline phosphates necessary to the formation of blood. The soup from boiled meat contains the soluble phosphates of the flesh, and the meat itself the insoluble. Neither the soup nor the flesh alone can maintain the processes of life, but both must be taken together. The English have in this respect hit upon the proper practice. In a theoretical point of view their food is more correctly combined than that of the Germans. Still more wonderful results have been obtained by the oxydation of casein by means of peroxyd of manganese and sulphuric acid, by M. Gugelberger. Three products are obtained: the first of which is aldehyde, the second oil of bitter almonds, and the third a fluid ethereal body with a composition similar to metacetone. The aldehyde was analyzed as aldehydite of ammonia, of which a considerable quantity was obtained. From oil of bitter almonds the most beautiful benzoic acid was produced by the action of chlorine. From these results a sort of conception may be obtained how and wherefore many medicines have a certain deleterious or useful action. Urea, creatin, glycocoll, leucin, cystin, &c., are organic bases, and only products of the animal body or its elements, and organic bases are partly poisonous, partly beneficial in their action. I have caused the new experiments of Mulder on his protein to be repeated. The substance prepared by Fleitmann in this laboratory, according to his new method, and supposed to be free from sulphur, still contains 1.5 per cent., as does likewise a similar preparation by Laskowski. 7. Palæontographical Society of London.-The Palæontographical Society has been instituted the present year, and as organized, Sir Henry T. De La Beche, is President, and Prof. Bell, Prof. Forbes, Charles Lyell, Esq., Prof. J. Phillips, and other men of distinction are the Council. From the Prospectus we observe that it is the object of the Society to figure and describe as complete a stratigraphical series of British fossils as can be accomplished, including both the published and the unpublished species. It is proposed that the work shall be quarto, and that each plate shall, on the average, contain about twenty figures, illustrating half as many species, or more, according to circumstances. The work will be produced in the form of monographs, by various authors. As a commencement of the series, the whole of the British tertiary fossils are in course of being described and figured, under the superintendence of Mr. Searles Wood, Mr. F. E. Edwards, Mr. Flower, Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill, and other gentlemen of well known geological experience. No precise order of publication will be adhered to, but it is proposed that monographs of portions of the secondary series shall also be produced as early as the nature of such undertakings will permit. The copper-plates are being executed by the Messrs. Sowerby, and other artists of eminence in this department of engraving. Calculations have been carefully made, which show, that if 1000 members be acquired, and 1250 copies be printed, sixty plates and letter-press may be given annually to each member for his subscription of £1 1s. 8. OBITUARY.-Ithamar B. Crawe, M.D., of Watertown, was drowned in Perch Lake, Jefferson Co., N. Y., June 2, 1847. Suddenly called from life, he was deeply lamented by the public and affectionately mourned by his particular friends. He fell a sacrifice to his ardor in the pursuits of natural history. In the study of geology, mineralogy and botany, he had long been successfully engaged, and had accumulated a rich treasure of specimens in these departments, while he had made himself by his own discoveries and by exchanges, the friend of many of the naturalists of our country and of Europe. He was returning from a successful botanical excursion in a leaky boat, which sunk; and thus was closed his valuable life, when he had nearly attained the age of fiftyfour years. A wife and three children receive the cordial sympathies of numerous friends over the land. Dr. Crawe was born in the state of Connecticut, and was descended from one of the Pilgrim fathers of Plymouth rock. His father was a soldier in our revolution, a man of sterling integrity and firmness. The son inherited these manly virtues, and distinguished himself in his profession and pursuits. At the close of his medical studies, he received his diploma from the hand of Dr. Mott. He settled in Watertown soon after his graduation, and, having made it his residence most of the time since, he had endeared himself to a wide circle of his fellow citizens, who have given public evidence of their high estimation of his worth and attainments in his profession and in those studies to which he gave the strong powers of his mind. To that part of the state his loss is a source of public sorrow; to us all deeply afflictive. C. D. Rochester, N. Y., June, 1847. VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. L. Geology: Introductory, Descriptive, and Practical. II. The Ancient World, or Picturesque Sketches of Creation. By D. T. ANSTED, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in Spring's College, London, &c. &c. The geological works of Prof. Ansted have been for some years before the world. The Geology was published in 1844, in two beautiful 8vo volumes, of more than 1000 pages. It is divided into three parts.-I. Introductory. II. Descriptive Geology. III. Practical Geology. I. The Introduction, in four chapters, explains the object of the work, the action of present causes, the classes of rocks and the powers concerned in their production, the nature and value of fossils and of Palæontology, and of the results which it affords. II. The Second Part, in forty-eight chapters, describes, I. The fossiliferous or stratified rocks-under the heads of the older and the newer Paleozoic period. The secondary period. The Tertiary period. II. The description of crystalline and unstratified rocks. III. The Third Part, in seventeen chapters, describes Practical Geology, with its applications to mining, engineering, architecture, agriculture, &c. The practical geology occupies more than half of the second volume. These volumes are illustrated in all, by three hundred and sixty-seven figures. The illustrations are all done on wood, and being executed with great skill and carefully copied upon the printed page of the most beautiful paper, they are at once effective for instruction and highly ornamental. This work contains a lucid and judicious summary of the facts of the science, with cautious indulgence in theory. We perused it soon after it appeared, and with much instruction and pleasure: nor have we remained silent regarding it from any want of a just appreciation of its merits. We have not observed Prof. Ansted often among the active explorers of geology with whom Great Britain abounds; but he has proved himself to be a very diligent student of the science, and one of its attractive and successful historians. His learned and elegant work we can therefore recommend to the student of geology as an important addition to his library. It is worthy of a much fuller review and analysis; but as much time has elapsed since its appearance, and it has been extensively noticed in other journals, we now hasten to his very recent work, II. The Ancient World, named at the head of this article. The first thing that struck us a month since, on the opening of the package from London, was, that a volume had actually dropped down upon us from the ancient world, and that it is quite a mistake that the art of printing is only four hundred years old. In strict keeping with its subject, the covering and external adornments of the volume are in a style of ultra antiquity, while its interior presents fine paper, the best typography, and finished illustrations in one hundred and forty-seven wood-cuts, besides two vignettes-one of which is a restoration of the vegetation of the cold period as it existed at that era in England. The volume is in the form of a large duodecimo of more than four hundred pages. It is divided under three periods: The First, or Ancient Epoch; the Second, or Middle Epoch; and the Third, or Modern Epoch. There are in all sixteen chapters; and (1.) an Introductory chapter unfolds the general structure and physical laws of the planet. Under the first epoch the principal subjects are presented in the following order: 2. The period of the præzoic, or non-fossiliferous or primary rocks. 3. That of the invertebratæ and Silurian rocks. 4. Early fishes and Devonian rocks, or the old red sandstone. 5. Earliest terrestrial plants and the era of coal. 6. The magnesian limestone, or Permian system. Under the second epoch: 7. The new red sandstone, or Triassic system. 8. Lias and marine reptiles. 9. Wealden and land reptiles, and flying reptiles, &c. 10. The Cretaceous period, with its animals. 11. General considerations on the secondary epoch and its ter mination. Under the third epoch: 12. The introduction of land animals, and the early tertiary. 13. Europe, between the early tertiary and the historic period. 14. India, Australia, and New Zealand, during the tertiary period. 15. South America in the same era. 16. General results of geological investigations. If then our readers are disposed to enquire for the cui bono? of the present work, the answer shall be given by the author himself in his Preface, which has the rare excellency of brevity as well as truth and candor. "The object of this work is to communicate, in a simple form, to the general reader, the chief results of Geological Investigation. No detailed account of particular districts, no minute statements with regard to peculiarities of structure, exhibited in various formations, or in their fossil contents, must therefore be expected; and on the other hand, the reader will be spared as far as possible, the mere technicalities of the science, while being informed of the views deduced from the study of them. The author hopes that if in thus endeavoring to communicate definite ideas concerning the ancient history of the earth and its inhabitants, he shall be found not to express with perfect accuracy, the whole amount of what is known in any department of geological science, his attempt may yet be viewed favorably, as a fair sketch of such history, at least in its broad outlines." An attentive perusal of Prof. Ansted's work, satisfies us that he has ably fulfilled his own views. He has produced an attractive and valuable volume, in which he has posted up the most recent discoveries, and presented also some peculiar views of his own, differing in some respects from those generally received. 2. Natural Philosophy for the use of Schools and Academies, illustrated by numerous Examples and appropriate Diagrams; by HAMIL TON L. SMITH, A.M. Cleveland, Ohio, 1847. 12mo, pp. 352. This is a very meritorious production, marked by sagacity and sound science. Designed for the purposes of elementary instruction, it claims no other merit than that of a successful inculcation of the established principles of natural philosophy and this merit it possesses. The author has a happy faculty of presenting his subject in an attractive and lucid form, and the method of the book is very well suited to the object in view. He is obviously familiar with the present state of his science, and teaches only a selection of his knowledge. Only one who is thoroughly acquainted with a science, is able to write a useful elementary work upon it. No notion is more absurd, than that one who knows little of a subject is fit to write books for those who know nothing. Such is not our present author. 3. Hints to Young Architects, calculated to facilitate their Practical Operations; by GEORGE NIGHTWICK: and with Additional Notes to persons about building in the Country; by A. J. DOWNING. New York and London. Wiley & Putnam: 1847. 8vo, pp. 157. Mr. Downing has established so desirable a reputation in all that relates to rural life and domestic architecture, that his works have become standards not only in this country, but in Europe also. The object of the present work is purely practical, and it contains much useful information and specific detail of construction for those about to build. The American editor has added among other things a well written introductory chapter, entitled, "When to build, what to build, and how |