CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE BODY. 



83 



The albuminous compounds, as the following table taken from the same 

 author will show, are widely distributed through the body, and in fact may 

 almost be said to be everywhere present. 



In 1000 parts of- 



Fluids are 



Cerebro-spinal fluid, .... 0.9 



Aqueous humor, 1.4 



Liquor amnii, 7.0 



Intestinal juice, !>.;"> 



Perioardiul fluid, 23.6 



Lymph, 24 6 



Pancreatic secretion, .... 33.3 



Synovia, 39.1 



JS'lilk, 39.4 



Chyle, 409 



Blood, 195.6 



Tissues are 



Spinal cord, 74.9 



Brain, 86.3 



Liver, 117.4 



Thymus (of calf) 122.9 



Egg (of fowl), 134.3 



Muscle, 101 8 



Middle coat of arteries, . . . 273.3 



Crystalline lens, 383. 



FIBRIN appears to be a compound formed by the union of two kinds of 

 albumen fibrinogen and paraglobuliu under the influence of a ferment ; 

 the two former of which are constantly present in the blood, and in inflam- 

 matory exudations, whilst the ferment forms in the blood after its removal 

 from the body. 1 Its properties, as well as those of hreraatocrystalliu, or the 

 albuminous constituent of the blood-corpuscles, will be found detailed in the 

 section devoted to the consideration of the blood. A substance presenting 

 numerous points of similarity to Fibrin, if not identical with it, has been 

 obtained by Mr. A. Smee,' 2 by passing oxygen through defibrinated blood to 

 which ordinary ov-albumen has been added, or through albumen slightly 

 acidified with acetic acid, and also by transmitting feeble currents of elec- 

 tricity through an albuminous fluid, when it accumulates around the positive 

 pole, where oxygen is eliminated. The substance to which the term CASEIN 

 was formerly applied, and which is so abundant in milk, has lately been 

 shown to be only a combination of albumen with soda, the albumen plaving 

 the part of an acid. 3 



MYOSIN. The term Myosiu is applied to the coagulum which forms in 

 the juice expressed from living muscle. It differs from fibrin in its trans- 

 parency and in its remaining gelatinous, without any tendency to assume a 

 fibrous character, but resembles that substance in its remarkable power of 

 quickly decomposing peroxide of hydrogen ; it loses this property at a 

 temperature of 140 F. It separates from the muscle plasma or juice very 

 slowly at 33 F., but with great rapidity at 104 F. An immediate coagulum 

 occurs in the plasma on dropping it into cold distilled water, or on the addi- 

 tion of diluted acids or solution of common salt (ten to twenty per cent). 

 The coagulum thus formed remains insoluble in water, but it is easily dis- 

 solved in dilute acids and alkalies, and in five to ten per cent, solutions of 

 common salt. In a state of purity, myosiu has no action on vegetable colors. 

 In the act of solution in dilute acids, it is converted into syutoniu. Ku'hne 

 considers that to the coagulation of the myosin, the condition of the muscles 

 termed Rigor mortis is to be referred. 



SYNTONIN can be extracted in large quantities from muscles and other 

 albuminous compounds by the action of a solution of hydrochloric acid, 

 containing one part of the acid to 1000 of water. Syntonin is precipitated 



1 See Schmidt, Pfluger's Archiv, Band vi, 1872, p. 413. 



2 Proceedings of the Royal Society, January 15th, 1863. 



3 Kiihne, Physiolog. Chemie, 1868, pp. 175 and 565. See also Kehrer, Archiv f. 

 Gymtcologie, Band ii, 1871, p. 1. 



