PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



1841-42. No. 20. 



Monday, Yith January 1842. 



Dr ABERCROMBIE, V. P. in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 

 1. On the Identity of the Animal Matters which form the 

 Basis of the Animal Fluids and Solids. By James Stark, 

 M.D., F.R.C. Phys. 



The author, after referring to the late researches of Mulder, 

 Vogel, Liebig, &c., whose experiments proved the close analogy 

 between albumen, fibrin, and casein, and their almost identity in 

 composition, stated that, in consequence of some experiments he had 

 performed a few years ago, he was led to entertain the idea that all 

 the animal fluids and solids consist of modifications of one and the 

 same prototype animal matter. The following considerations seemed 

 to confirm this opinion. 



1. Experiments on the blood, and the fact of all tissues of the 



body, however differing in appearance and chemical properties, 



being formed from that albuminous fluid. 2. The formation of the 



■ chick in ovo, albumen and oil being the only matters from which all 



^the tissues and fluids are derived ; whilst the chick being shut up 



I in a calcareous covering and tough membrane, which becomes denser 



jLas incubation advances, would appear to prevent any of the usual 



