CHLORIDE OF POTASSIUM. 39 



soda base, and a certain quantity, therefore, disappears in this 

 way. 



Existing, as it does, in all the solids and fluids of the 

 body, it is discharged in all the excretions, being thrown off 

 in the urine, feces, perspiration, and mucus. 



Chloride of Potassium, KC1. 



Chloride of potassium, though not as important a proxi- 

 mate principle as the chloride of sodium, nor so generally 

 distributed in the economy, seems to have an analogous 

 function. It is found in the Muscles, Liver, Milk, Chyle, 

 Blood, Mucus, Saliva, Bile, Gastric Juice, Cephalo-Rachidian 

 Fluid, and Urine. It is exceedingly soluble, and in .these 

 situations exists in solution in the fluids. 



Its quantity in these situations has not been accurately 

 ascertained, as it has generally been estimated together with 

 the chloride of sodium. In the muscles, it exists, however, 

 in a larger proportion than common salt. In cow's milk, 

 Berzelins 1 has found 1'T pts. per 1,000 ; Pfaff and Schwartz, 

 1*35 per 1,000 in cow's milk, and 0*3 per 1,000 in human 

 milk. 2 



Of the function of this principle, little remains to be said 

 after what has been stated with regard to the chloride of 

 sodium. Their -functions are probably identical, though the 

 latter, from its greater quantity in the fluids, and its univer- 

 sal distribution, is by far the more important. 



Origin and Discharge of Chloride of Potassium. This 

 substance has two sources ; one in the food, existing, as it 

 does, in muscular tissue, milk, etc., and the other in a chem- 

 ical reaction between the phosphate of potassa and the 

 chloride of sodium, forming the chloride of potassium and 



1 SIMON, Chemistry of Man, American edit, p. 342. 



2 ROBIN and YERDEIL, op. cit., tome ii., p. 205. 



