EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



IN the Editor's Preface to Baron Liebig's " Re- 

 searches on the Chemistry of Food," in which the 

 Author gave the results of his investigation into the 

 constituents of the juice of the flesh, I mentioned 

 that Baron Liebig had been led to study the subject 

 of Endosmosis experimentally. The results of this 

 investigation are contained in the following pages ; 

 and the reader will, I trust, be satisfied that the 

 motions of the animal juices depend on something 

 more than mere Endosmosis or Exosmosis, and that 

 the pressure of the atmosphere, as well as its hygro- 

 metric state, by influencing the transpiration from 

 the skin and lungs, are essentially concerned in pro- 

 ducing these motions. At the same time, the pre- 

 sent work is to be regarded, not as exhausting the 

 subject, but, on the contrary, as only pointing out 

 the direction in which inquiry is likely to lead to 

 the most valuable results. 



While it is proved that the mechanical causes of 

 pressure and evaporation, and the chemical com- 



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