Conversations on Chemistry Part 101

How is it, then, that jelly is flavoured with wine, without producing any precipitation?

MRS. B.

Because the alcohol contained in wine is already combined with water, and other ingredients, and is therefore not at liberty to act upon the jelly as when in its separate state. Gelatine is soluble both in acids and in alkalies; the former, you know, are frequently used to season jellies.

CAROLINE.

Among the combinations of gelatine we must not forget one which you formerly mentioned; that with tannin, to form leather.

MRS. B.

True; but you must observe that leather can be produced only by gelatine in a membranous state; for though pure gelatine and tannin will produce a substance chemically similar to leather, yet the texture of the skin is requisite to make it answer the useful purposes of that substance.

The next animal substance we are to examine is _alb.u.men_; this, although const.i.tuting a part of most of the animal compounds, is frequently found insulated in the animal system; the white of egg, for instance, consists almost entirely of alb.u.men; the substance that composes the nerves, the serum, or white part of the blood, and the curds of milk, are little else than alb.u.men variously modified.

In its most simple state, alb.u.men appears in the form of a transparent viscous fluid, possessed of no distinct taste or smell; it coagulates at the low temperature of 165 degrees, and, when once solidified, it will never return to its fluid state.

Sulphuric acid and alcohol are each of them capable of coagulating alb.u.men in the same manner as heat, as I am going to show you.

EMILY.

Exactly so. --Pray, Mrs. B., what kind of action is there between alb.u.men and silver? I have sometimes observed, that if the spoon with which I eat an egg happens to be wetted, it becomes tarnished.

MRS. B.

It is because the white of egg (and, indeed, alb.u.men in general) contains a little sulphur, which, at the temperature of an egg just boiled, will decompose the drop of water that wets the spoon, and produce sulphurated hydrogen gas, which has the property of tarnis.h.i.+ng silver.

We may now proceed to _fibrine_. This is an insipid and inodorous substance, having somewhat the appearance of fine white threads adhering together; it is the essential const.i.tuent of muscles or flesh, in which it is mixed with and softened by gelatine. It is insoluble both in water and alcohol, but sulphuric acid converts it into a substance very a.n.a.logous to gelatine.

These are the essential and general ingredients of animal matter; but there are other substances, which, though not peculiar to the animal system, usually enter into its composition, such as oils, acids, salts, &c.

_Animal oil_ is the chief const.i.tuent of fat; it is contained in abundance in the cream of milk, whence it is obtained in the form of b.u.t.ter.

EMILY.

Is animal oil the same in its composition as vegetable oils?

MRS. B.

Not the same, but very a.n.a.logous. The chief difference is that animal oil contains nitrogen, a principle which seldom enters into the composition of vegetable oils, and never in so large a proportion.

There are a few animal acids, that is to say, acids peculiar to animal matter, from which they are almost exclusively obtained.

The animal acids have triple bases of hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen.

Some of them are found native in animal matter; others are produced during its decomposition.

Those that we find ready formed are:

The _bombic acid_, which is obtained from silk-worms.

The _formic acid_, from ants.

The _lactic acid_, from the whey of milk.

The _sebacic_, from oil or fat.

Those produced during the decomposition of animal substances by heat, are the _prussic_ and _zoonic_ acids. This last is produced by the roasting of meat, and gives it a brisk flavour.

CAROLINE.

The cla.s.s of animal acids is not very extensive?

MRS. B.

No; nor are they, generally speaking, of great importance. The _prussic acid_ is, I think, the only one sufficiently interesting to require any further comment. It can be formed by any artificial process, without the presence of any animal matter; and it may likewise be obtained from a variety of vegetables, particularly those of the narcotic kind, such as poppies, laurel, &c. But it is commonly obtained from blood, by strongly heating that substance with caustic potash; the alkali attracts the acid from the blood, and forms with it a _prussiat of potash_. From this state of combination the prussic acid can be obtained pure by means of other substances which have the power of separating it from the alkali.

EMILY.

But if this acid does not exist ready formed in blood, how can the alkali attract it from it?

MRS. B.

It is the triple basis only of this acid that exists in the blood; and this is developed and brought to the state of acid, during the combustion. The acid therefore is first formed, and it afterwards combines with the potash.

EMILY.

Now I comprehend it. But how can the prussic acid be artificially made?

MRS. B.

By pa.s.sing ammoniacal gas over red-hot charcoal; and hence we learn that the const.i.tuents of this acid are hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon. The two first are derived from the volatile alkali, the last from the combustion of the charcoal.

CAROLINE.

But this does not accord with the system of oxygen being the principle of acidity.

MRS. B.

The colouring matter of prussian blue is called an acid, because it unites with alkalies and metals, and not from any other characteristic properties of acids; perhaps the name is not strictly appropriate. But this circ.u.mstance, together with some others of the same kind, has induced several chemists to think that oxygen may not be the exclusive generator of acids. Sir H. Davy, I have already informed you, was led by his experiments on dry acids to suspect that water might be essential to acidity. And it is the opinion of some chemists that acidity may possibly depend rather on the arrangement than on the presence of any particular principles. But we have not yet done with the prussic acid.

It has a strong affinity for metallic oxyds, and precipitates the solutions of iron in acids of a blue colour. This is the prussian blue, or prussiat of iron, so much used in the arts, and with which I think you must be acquainted.

EMILY.

Yes, I am; it is much used in painting, both in oil and in water colours; but it is not reckoned a permanent oil-colour.

MRS. B.