8 SCHMIDT Oy. THE COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY 



(solubility after swelling, and becoming transparent in alkalies, 

 the same phaenomena without subsequent solution in acetic 

 acid, and the production of a lemon-yellow colour on being 

 heated with nitric acid) agreed with the muscular elements. 

 I shall subsequently state how elementary analysis and the esti- 

 mation of the nitrogen were rendered impracticable. 



At all events, I think I have rendered the chemical identity of 

 those organic elements which effect spontaneous motion, hence 

 the purely vital functions of the animal, at least extremely pro- 

 bable, although, as in every case, many more examinations are 

 requisite to establish it. If with these results we compare the 

 composition of fibrine, albumen and caseine, as found in the 

 numerous experiments made under the direction of Liebig in 

 Giessen*, and by Mulderf, we find a remarkable difference. 

 All these secondary elementary substances of the animal organism 

 contain 55 per cent, of carbon and somewhat more nitrogen. 

 My own analyses throughout have been performed on such con- 

 siderable quantities of anatomically-pure matei'ial, and the appli- 

 cation of the platinum vessel with the current of oxygen ensured 

 both an accurate determination of the hydrogen, and so sure a 

 control over the perfect combustion of the carbon, and finally 

 I have made them with such care, that I place full confidence in 

 them ; nevertheless I obtained only 52*2 to 52*5 per cent, of car- 

 bon, and 1 5*2 to 15*4 per cent, of nitrogen. As we know, Scherer J 

 has rendered it probable that the chemico-physical difference in 

 the modifications of the fibrine in chyle from that in arterial and 

 venous blood depend upon a definite compound of the albumen, 

 with oxygen in some form, so that the arterial fibrine which is 

 relatively most consolidated yielded the largest amount of oxygen 

 with the same relative proportion of the carbon to the nitrogen. 

 Playfair and Bockmann's§ analyses, the only ones which have 

 been instituted on muscular fibre, had quite a different object in 

 view, in which histological purity of the substance was not requi- 

 site 5 their purpose was the comparison of the enti7'e muscle with 



* The analytical results are in Wohler and Liebig's Jnnalen, vol. xl. I 

 recommend Liebig's exposition of these relations, especially of the //-we import of 

 elementary analysis and the valne of their expressions in equivalent formulae 

 (see Animal Chemistry), to the consideration of those calculators of the atoms 

 in tubercle of the liver, brain, lungs and abdomen, and other such absurdities. 



f Nalunr en Sclieikundig Archicf. for several years after 1836. 



I Wohler and Liebig's Annalen, vol. xl. part ]. 



§ Liebig's Animal Chemistry, Analytical Proofs, 



