322 DR ALISON'S OBSERVATIONS ON 



as small as in the worst diseases of the stomach ; while at the same time there is 

 a tendency to extravasation, not indeed of the red globules as in scurvy or pur- 

 pura, but of the serous part of the blood, — equally dependent as the extravasa- 

 tions in scurvy, on the condition of the blood itself 



But not only do we understand that there should be this great deficiency of 

 the albuminous contents of the blood in scurvy, resulting after a time from the use 

 of exclusively albuminous food, equally as from the denial of such food, or the 

 continued morbid discharge of albumen from the blood, or the deficiency of diges- 

 tive or assimilating power, as in chlorosis ; but we understand, likewise, what ap- 

 pears at first sight paradoxical, — how the evils resulting from this state of the 

 blood should be remedied by the use of food which is not albuminous, by succu- 

 lent vegetables and vegetable acids. I do not say that we can understand exactly 

 the efficacy of the small quantities of the vegetable acids in particular, which ap- 

 pear to be effectual in relieving the symptoms of scurvy; but we can distinctly 

 perceive the principle, that, when a quantity of non-azotised matter is taken into 

 the blood, the oxygen of the air will have less power to act injuriously on the 

 albuminous constituents of the blood. 



But although the distinction of the azotised and non-azotised ingesta, and 

 the view taken of the chief offices of the two, enable us to understand much that 

 was formerly obscure in regard to these points, yet it is not necessary, in ac- 

 quiescing in this doctrine, to deny the possibility of the formation of albumen in 

 the animal body. We may state other facts, occurring both in health and in dis- 

 ease, which are hardly consistent with the belief, either that no albuminous mat- 

 ter can be formed there, or that none of the albuminous matter taken into the 

 body is applied immediately to the formation of excretions. 



1. When we attend to the invigorating effect of pure air and of exercise on all 

 vital action, and to the evidence we have of the increase of the red globules of 

 the blood ( the chief part of its albuminous constituents ), and of the muscular 

 texture throughout the body under their influence, it seems hardly possible to 

 doubt, that the effect of the increased introduction of oxygen into the system is 

 a real increase of the deposition of albuminous mjitter. Now, if there be no 

 formation of albumen in the animal body, the increased introduction of oxy- 

 gen is the increased application of a cause only of degradation or destruction 

 of such matter ; whereas, if albumen can be formed out of the non-azotised in- 

 gesta, as we have seen that there must be a considerable discharge of carl)on 

 and hydrogen, by help of the oxygen of the air, before the remaining elements 

 can fall into the arrangement necessary for that purpose, Ave at once perceive 

 that the effect of pure air and of muscular exertion must be, to increase the forma- 

 tion of that albuminous matter in the blood. 



The effect of exercise in preventing or relieving the symptoms of Scurvy, ap- 



