2$ ON ALBUMEN AND OTHER ANIMAL FLUIDS. 



learn, that the liquor of the amnios has the properties of a 

 dilute solution of liquid albumen*. 



7. Pus. 



* as * In the pus of a healthy sore, coagulation took place at 



both poles ; most abundantly, however, at the negative pole. 

 A slight degree of putrefaction having commenced in the 

 pus which was examined, I did not pay particular attention 

 to the other products of the experiment. 

 The dccompo-- In concluding this section, it may be proper to remark, 

 men differs ac- * nat tne decomposition of liquid albumen by Voltaic elec- 

 cording to ihe tricity takes place in different ways, according to the power 

 P^w r p oy- ein pi ovec i # With a comparatively high electrical power, the 

 coagulation goes on rapidly at the negative pole, and only 

 very slowly at the positive pole ; whereas, with an extremely 

 low power, the coagulation is comparatively rapid at the 

 positive surface, an alkaline solution of albumen surround- 

 ing the negative pole. Thus, when the conductors from 

 twenty-four four-inch double plates, highly charged, were 

 brought within half an inch of each other, in a dilute solu- 

 tion of albumen (consisting of one part of albumen to six 

 of water), the coagulation was considerably more abundant 

 at the negative than at the positive pole ; but when the con- 

 ductors were removed from each other to a distance of eight 

 inches, or when they remained at half an inch, being con- 

 nected with a battery of six four-inch double plates ouly, 

 the coagulation was only perceptible at the positive pole, in 

 consequence of the acid there collected. Hence we may 

 infer, that a rapid abstraction of alkali is necessary to the 

 perfect coagulation of albumen, since, in the cases above 

 alluded to, the albumen remains in solution. 



* The difference in the results of the analysis given in the text, and 

 that of Vauquelw and Buniva, most probably arises from the liquor 

 of the amnios examined by those chemists not having been perfectly re- 

 cent, and perhaps mixed with other secr«tions. See Annates de Chituie, 

 XXXIII, p. 270. 



IV. 



