382 Chemical Properties of Animal Fluid.}. [Nov. 



branes from the external air, differs from that of the urinary 

 bladder, which is to preserve this organ from the contact of an 

 acid liquor, or from that of the gall bladder, whose contents are 



alkaline. 



The animal matter peculiar to mucus is the same in all cases, 

 and has the following properties : it is insoluble in water, but is 

 able to imbibe so much of this fluid as to become more or less 

 transparent, semi-liquid, or what is termed glairy. If in this 

 state it be laid on blotting paper, and the paper changed as it 

 becomes wet, the mucus may be deprived of the greater part of 

 the moisture which it had absorbed, and will then lose most of 

 its peculiar properties. Mucus is not coagulable by boiling, it 

 becomes transparent when dry, and generally resumes its mucous 

 character on adding fresh water, but there is great difference in 



this property. 



Tbe liquid part of mucus, or that fluid which the proper 

 mucous matter imbibes, and to which it owes its fluidity, is the 

 same as the liquid that remains after the coagulation of the 



serum. 



My experiments give the following constituent parts of nasal 



> mucus: — 



Water 9337 



Mucous matter 53*3 



Muriate of potass and soda 5S 



Lactate of soda, with its accompanying ani-7 3>0 



mal matter 5 



Soda . 0-9 



Albumen and animal matter insoluble in alco- 1 



hoi, but soluble in water; along with a > 3-5 



trace of phosphate of soda j 



1000-0 



Nasal mucus, when just secreted, contains a greater propor- 

 tion of water than above stated. It is very fluid ; and gives by 

 evaporation only 0*25 per cent, of solid matter. There is reason 

 to suppose that its peculiar animal matter is first dissolved in the 

 free alkali, but is gradually pr< cipitajed as the alkali becomes 

 carbonated by the contact of the respired air. The mucus which 

 I analysed was of such a consistence that the whole quantity fell 

 out on inclining the vessel that contained it. 



The proper mucous matter of the nose has the following pro- 

 perties: immersed in water it imbibes so much moisture as to 

 become transparent, excepting a few particles that remain opake : 

 it may then be separated by the filter from the rest of the water, 

 and may be furtlier dried on blotting paper till it has again lost 

 nearly the whole of the moisture it had imbibed. Mucus thus 





