NITROGENISED VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. 189 



trogenised compounds, so remarkable for their action 

 on the brain and on the substance of the organs of 

 motion, as elements of food for the organs as yet 

 unknown, which are destined for the metamorphosis 

 of the constituents of the blood into nervous sub- 

 stance and brain. Such organs there must be in 

 the animal body, and if, in the diseased state, an ab- 

 normal process of production or transformation of 

 the constituents of cerebral and nervous matter has 

 been established ; if, in the organs intended for this 

 purpose, the power of forming that matter out of 

 the constituents of blood, or the power of resisting 

 an abnormal degree of activity in its decomposition 

 or transformation, has been diminished ; then, in a 

 chemical sense, there is no objection to the opinion, 

 that substances of a composition analogous to that 

 of nervous and cerebral matter, and, consequently, 

 adapted to form that matter, may be employed, in- 

 stead of the substances produced from the blood, 

 either to furnish the necessary resistance, or to re- 

 store the normal condition. 



96. Some physiologists and chemists have ex- 

 pressed doubts of the peculiar and distinct character 

 of cerebric acid, a substance which, from its amount 

 of carbon and hydrogen, and from its external cha- 

 racters, resembles a nitrogenised fatty acid. But 

 a nitrogenised fat, having an acid character, is, 

 in fact, no anomaly. Hippuric acid is in many of 

 its characters very similar to the fatty acids, but is 

 essentially distinguished from them by containing 



