310 M. E. Millon on Metals in the Human Blood. 



which runs rapidly through the filter and remains limpid. If 

 we examine this reaction more closely, we will find a peculiar 

 separation of the elements of the hlood. The organic sub- 

 stances are found almost wholly in the coagulated portion ; 

 all the saline principles, on the contrary, are collected in the 

 liquid. This division is made so completely, that on washing 

 the coagulum and then calcining it, it is destroyed, without 

 leaving any residuum. On the other hand, the liquid, when 

 evaporated to dryness and burned in a tube used for organic 

 analysis, affords so little carbonic acid, that at most we may 

 estimate the proportion of the organic matters of the blood 

 which the chlorine does not coagulate, at one in a hundred. It 

 is easy to convince ourselves that the coagulum furnished by 

 the organic principles does not contain the fixed salts of the 

 blood — does not condense them — and encloses a quantity only 

 proportionate to the quantity of water which impregnates it ; 

 so that if we weigh the water in which we received the blood, 

 and weigh it again after mixture with the blood, we may act 

 upon a known weight of filtered liquid, as on a determined 

 weight of blood. This liquid accommodates itself so well to 

 all analytic researches, both as regards quality and quantity, 

 that we can immediately discover the quantity of one or other 

 of the fixed salts of the blood. This method is in fact an ana- 

 lysis of the fixed salts of the blood, by the humid method, 

 and M. Millon thinks that it will apply advantageous^ to 

 other tissues and other liquids employed for economical 

 purposes. 



This facility in insulating the saline part of the blood has 

 led M. Millon to other results. He states that he has proved 

 that the blood of man constantly contains silex, manganese, 

 lead, and copper. The proportion of silex and of the metals 

 is sufficient to prevent any particular modification being re- 

 quired in their ar alysis. After evaporating to dryness the 

 liquid set free by the action of the chlorine, the residuum is 

 calcined for a few instants in order to remove the small 

 quantity of organic matter which the chlorine has not rendered 

 insoluble. The insoluble part of the ashes is then treated as 

 a mineral substance, in which we find silex, lead, copper, 

 and manganese. M. Millon has in this way found, that in 



