Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 311 



introduced into a bottle of chlorine gas, it coagulates, becomes of a 

 brown colour, and forms a gray amorphous mass, in which the orga- 

 nization of the red particles entirely disappears. When it is thrown 

 upon a cloth and pressed, a liquid flows from it which filters rapidly 

 and remains limpid. 



If this reaction be minutely examined, it is found that a peculiar 

 development of the elements of the blood has occurred. The orga- 

 nized portions are found almost entirely in the coagulated portion ; 

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

 liquid. 



This separation is so perfect, that when the coagulum is first 

 ■washed and afterwards bui'nt, it is destroyed without leaving any 

 residue. On the other hand, the hquid evaporated to dryness and 

 burnt in the organic analysis tube, yields so little carbonic acid, that 

 it cannot be estimated at more than 1 per cent, of the organic matter 

 of the blood, which chlorine does not coagulate. 



It is easy to determine that the coagulum furnished by the organic 

 principles does not contain the fixed salts of the blood, and does not 

 condense them, but contains such a quantity only as is proportional 

 to the quantity of the water with which it is impregnated ; so that 

 if the water in which the blood is received be weighed, and it be again 

 weighed afterwards, a known weight of the filtered liquid may be 

 acted upon as a determinate quantity of the blood 



This liquid is so proper for all analytical researches, whether qua- 

 litative or quantitative, that the fixed salts of the blood are immedi- 

 ately discovered and their quantity ascertained. To give some idea 

 of this rapidity, two or three minutes are sufficient to obtain from 

 the blood even the iron which it contains, in the state of a limpid 

 solution, in which all the reactions of this metal are discoverable. 



The other fixed salts are also recognized, and their quantity deter- 

 mined, without incurring the tediousness and well-known difficulties 

 attendant upon the calcination of organic matters. 



This method is, in fact, an analysis of the fixed salts of the blood 

 in the humid way : it cannot fail to be advantageously applied to 

 other tissues, and to other liquids of the animal ceconomy ; added to 

 which, the most repulsive organic matters are by the action of the 

 chlorine converted into common saline solutions. 



The facility of isolating the saline portion of the blood leads to - 

 other results well-worthy of notice. Human blood is known always 

 to contain silica, manganese, lead and copper. The proportion of 

 silica and of the metals is sufficient to prevent the necessity of any 

 peculiar modification in the analysis. After having evaporated to 

 dryness the liquor left after the action of the chlorine, the residue is 

 to be calcined for a short time, to get rid of the small quantity of 

 organic matter which the chlorine has not rendered insoluble. The 

 insoluble portion of the ashes is then to be treated like a mineral, in 

 which the quantities of silica, lead, copper, and manganese are to be 

 determined. It is found that 100 parts of the insoluble residue of 

 ashes of the blood yield — 



