the Urine in Man and Carnivorous Animals. 465 



and albumen, or any aliment similar to these, in the same 

 degree as hydrochloric acid in the dilute state in which it 

 exists in the gastric juice; and this dissolving power is, more- 

 over, quite independent of the other substances present in the 

 gastric juice, for those other substances do not act as solvents, 

 they merely exercise an accelerating influence upon the pro- 

 cess of solution. Hydrochloric acid in contact with calf's 

 stomach, acts upon coagulated albumen simply with increased 

 rapidity; the solution ensues with equal completeness, whether 

 we use hydrochloric acid with calf's stomach, or pure hydro- 

 chloric acid diluted to the same extent. Tlie difference be- 

 tween the processes in the two cases is simply a difference of 

 time; the solution in the former case requires for its comple- 

 tion only the fifth part of the time necessary in the latter case; 

 this fact has been confirmed by all the experiments on arti- 

 ficial digestion with access of air, and therefore of oxygen. 

 The action of hydrochloric acid on bones will best illustrate 

 the action which this acid exercises upon phosphate of lime. 

 Microscopical investigations have shown us that the phosphate 

 of lime is contained in bones in chemical combination with 

 gelatine, and not deposited in gelatinous cells. When bones 

 are digested in very dilute hydrochloric acid their phosphate 

 of lime is dissolved out within a few per cents., and the resi- 

 duary gelatine, which under other circumstances requires 

 several hours for its solution in boiling water, now dissolves 

 in the space of a few seconds. 



Disregarding altogether the solvent power which hydro- 

 chloric acid exercises upon the animal substance itself, there 

 is no doubt that it destroys the combination of the organic 

 substance with phosphate of lime, and by that means increases 

 its solubility. 



When the hydrochloric acid (in the stomach) has exercised 

 its solvent action upon the aliments, and the latter have passed 

 into a state of solution, the soda, which originally entered the 

 organism in combination with the hydrochloric acid, that is, 

 as common salt, rejoins the hydrochloric acid during the pre- 

 paration of the chyme, and previous to its transformation into 

 chyle; the soda and the hydrochloric acid thus re-united com- 

 bine again and form common salt. Chyle .and lymph have no 

 longer any acid reaction, but, on the contrary, they manifest 

 alkaline properties. 



The alkaline reaction of the lymph, chyle, and blood of 

 man, and of the carnivorous animals, cannot be owing to the 

 presence of a free alkali, as is evident from the preceding ob- 

 servations ; for the nutriments of man, and of the carnivorous 

 as well as the graminivorous animals, contain no free alkali, 



PML MafT. S. 3. Vol 25. No. 1 68 . Dec. 1 84't. 2 H 



