REPORT OF MEDICAL SECTION. 149 
Report from the Committee for inquiring into the Analysis of 
the Glands, §c., of the Human Body. By G. O. Rexs, M.D., 
F.G.S. 
Part II. 
THERE are but few analyses recorded of the glands of animals, 
or of those solid products of disease which it seems desirable to 
submit to the searching powers of chemistry. If we refer to 
the observations of Berzelius, and the various analyses of Fromm- 
herz and Gugert, performed on some of the glands from the 
human subject, we cannot but be struck with the great difficul- 
ties which must attend any attempt at quantitative examination 
by the method of analysis adopted by these chemists. It is my 
intention to propose a form for the analysis of the various solid 
parts of the human frame, and so to establish a settled method 
in proceeding, which shall enable us to make such comparative 
experiments as may assist in the detection of any aberration 
from the healthy condition of any single organ. 
A diseased condition of an animal part must consist either in 
the increased or decreased proportion or absence of some one 
of its constituent parts, or in the addition of some adventitious 
principle to its component elements. As both these conditions 
are frequently present (since the latter implies the existence of 
the first), it becomes of the greatest importance to be able to de- 
tect not only the existence of any new principle in the diseased 
part, but likewise the quantity of each constituent which is pre- 
sent in health, as by that means we are enabled to ascertain 
what normal constituents or portions of a constituent of the gland 
have been displaced to make room for the morbid matter which 
has been deposited. For this purpose we must have recourse 
to quantitative analysis, and I hope to be able to show that most 
of those difficulties are surmountable which appear to have de- 
terred many from prosecuting this line of investigation. I have 
been much encouraged to hope for a useful result from this in- 
quiry, by considering how many valuable indications of disease 
have been afforded us by the most simple uses of chemistry 
when applied to the urine: here we observe that ascertaining 
the proportion of water alone has given rise to much philoso- 
phical reasoning and valuable information, as regards the eco- 
nomy of the organismus; and asteady and indefatigable inquiry 
into the existence of albumen in the urine led Dr. Bright to a 
discovery, the importance of which is every day becoming more 
