18 On Expectorated Matter, 



[The author then 'describes at large, and with much pre- 

 cision, the effects produced on expectorated matter bv the 

 agency oF caloric; oF alcohol of wine, oF water; and oF- 

 acetous acid — also some experiments with different objects 

 from any of these: but we confine the remaining part of 

 the present extract to his. Conclusions, as containing that 

 kind oF information which will l^e most acceptable to the 

 generality oF our readers.] 



'' Conclusions, 



^' 1. From the preceding experiments and observations, 

 and From others which I might have related, it does not 

 appear that the various kinds ot expectorated matter, page 12, 

 differ in the ingredients oF their composition^ but merely 

 in the proportion of them to one another. 



" 2. It has been shown that expectorated matter consists 

 oF coagulable, or, as it is also now frequently termed, albu^ 

 minous animal substance^ and oF water impregnated- with 

 several saline and earthy bodies; — that the largest proportion 

 of the animal substance, which may justly be called an 

 oxide, amounts to one-twelFth, and in some very rare cases 

 to one-tenth of the expectorated matter, reduced to a brittle 

 stale by evaporation ; and that the smalles* proportion of 

 this oxide, in rare instances, amounts to one forty-fifth of 

 the expectorated matter; but that the usual proportions of 

 it vary between one-twentieth and one-sixteenth of this 

 coagulable oxide to the evaporable water, that is, between 

 five and six per cent, of the expectorated matter. 



'' 3. The impregnating substances have been shown to 

 be muriate of soda, varying commonly between one and a- 

 half to two and a half per 1000 of the expectorated matter — 

 Potash varying between one-half and three-fourths of a 

 part per. 1000— Phosphate of lime about half a part of looo 

 —Ammonia,' united probably to the phosphoric acid ; phos- 

 phate, perhaps of magnesia; carbonate of lime ; asulphate; 

 vitrifiable n^^tter, or perhaps silica; and oxide of iron. But 

 the whole of these last six substances scarcely amounting 

 to one part in 1000 of the expectorated matter, it would 

 be useless to estitnatethe proportion of each of them. Jt is 

 very probable that the proportions and quantities of these 

 ingredients vary much more than now represented in dif- 

 ferent states of disease and health*. It is very probable 

 aUo, that some of the ingredients may occasionally be ab- 



• In one case, the opaque expectorated matter in a pulmonary consump- 

 tion havir.fT been exsiccated to bfittleuew, beeanje almost li'iuid aftw a night's 

 •Kposutr to the air, 



sent^, 



