320 DR ALISON'ti OBSERVATIONS ON 



consequence of the discoveries made as to the existence of albuminous matter in 

 \egetables since Dr Prout wrote), and assert that more or less of albuminous mat- 

 ter is always necessary, because it alone, of all the solid or fluid ingesta, contains 

 the azote which is a necessary constituent of animal textures ; and that it must be 

 combined either with starch or with oil, or botli ; partly because oil is an essential 

 constituent of parts of the body, and must either be furnished ready made, or 

 formed in the body from starch ; and partly because the animal heat, the first re- 

 quisite of vitality, can only be maintained by the oxygen of the air combining with 

 carbon and hydrogen in the blood ; and if it does not find these elements in suffi- 

 cient quantity, and in a fit state for such union, in the other constituents of the 

 blood or of the textures, it will attack the albuminous portions of the blood and 

 textures, and so cause decomposition and wasting of the body. 



We see likewise the importance of oily food, which, containing the largest 

 proportion of carbon and liydrogen, Avill yield to the oxygen the largest quantity of 

 carbonic acid and water, and therefore evolve the gi'eatest quantity of caloric, — in 

 cold climates; and of saccharine and amylaceous food which, containing more 

 oxygen in itself, will furnish a smaller quantity of calorific compound with the 

 oxygen of the air, — in warm climates ; particularly as the supply of heat from this 

 kind of ingesta is farther regulated and moderated by the action of the liver, in 

 a wa3' to be afterwards considered. 



3. We understand the principle, on which the wasting of the body is effected, 

 either in cases of denial of aliments, or of disease preventing their reception or 

 digestion ; i. e., we understand that the oxygen of the air, introduced regularly 

 and uniformly in the blood by respiration, but meeting there with very different 

 compounds as the privation of ingesta continues, is the main agent in the process ; 

 acting first, as it must do in the health}' state, on the non-azotised compounds 

 existing in the blood, oil, cholesterine, or other constituents of the bile, and starch, 

 or matters recently formed from starch, and nearly destitute of azote, and which 

 readily give up their carbon and hydrogen ; next acting on the non-azotised por- 

 tion of the solid textures, i. e., the fat, and causing emaciation ; afterwards acting 

 on the albuminous portions of the blood itself, rendering it more serous ; and then 

 acting directly or indirectly on the solid textures, determining ultimately such 

 absorption of the substance of the brain and nerves as causes delirium and in- 

 sensibility, and such absorption of the muscular textures, as causes death by 

 asthenia. It can onl}' be by successively acting on these different matters, that 

 the oxygen can find the quantity of carbon and hydrogen with which it must 

 unite in the course of the circulation, to account for its own disappearance and 

 for the quantity of carbonic acid which is known to be still thrown off, for days 

 and weeks, while no carbonaceous matter is added to the blood ; and the order in 

 which the successive changes on the sensible qualities and functions of the body 

 occur, corresponds perfectly with the belief that the oxygen, acting on the dif- 



