u4ikaU in the Animnl Fluids. it 7 7 



serum; they liave induced me to reconsider the question, 

 and to add to my former inquiry on that head, a few new 

 results, which, 1 flatter myself, will remove every shadow 

 of doubt which may remain on your mind in that respect. 



** In my reply to Dr. Pearson, in March last, I abstained 

 purposely from bringing forward any new data, because the 

 chief objtct of that letter was to vindicate former state- 

 ments and inferences, and to show that there had not been, 

 as was argued by mv opponent, any blunder in the mode 

 of reasoning by which I arrived at my conclusions. In- 

 deed it appeared to me hardly necessary to push the inquiry 

 any further ; and I must own thai from the manner in 

 which Dr. Pearson had thought proper to carry on the 

 controversy, in his two letters on the subject*, I should 

 have felt great reluctance to resume the discussion, had it 

 not been for your interference. 



*' Your objection, or rather your scepticism, arose from 

 your having found in a mass of salts trom serum (by the 

 successive agency cjf acetic acid; alcohol, and tartaric acid,) 

 such quantities of potash as appeared to you to show that 

 the uucombined alkali w as potash, and not soda ; and you 

 were further confirmed in this belief by observing that the 

 alkaline residue obtained by heating the acetal to redness 

 was deliquescent. You will see, however, by the following 

 statements, that you were mistaken in your inference, and 

 you will, I make no doubt, admit that the potash which 

 you found in the alcoholic solution must have been in the 

 state of muriat ; and that the deliquescent quality of the 

 alkaline residue must have arisen from your acetat having 

 been but imperfectly decomposed, on account of the too 

 low degree of ignition to which you had exposed it, and 

 perhaps also (as you have yourself observed) in consfi- 

 quence of the presence of muriatic salts. But your ex- 

 periments appear to show that the proportion which the 

 muriat of potash in the blood bears to the muriat of soda, 

 is greater than I had at first iinagiiKd ; and that we had 

 both underrated the power of alcohol to dissolve muriat of 

 potash. 



*• As to the point at issue, however ; natnely, the nature 

 of the uucombined alkali in the incinerated salts of blood, 

 the experiments upon which I think myself warranted to 

 repeat, with increased Confidence, my former opinion, that 

 the alkali is snda, and not potash, were conducted in the 

 /ullowing planner. 



* Sec tilis Juurnal for February and May lad. 



Vol. 40. No. 173. Sept. 181S. W "After 



