232 METAMORPHOSIS OF TISSUE, 



oxidising the sulphur which is peculiar to all protein-bodies ; and 

 we need only refer to the method recommended by Mulder for the 

 exhibition of the albumen-protein and the fibrin-protein, to show 

 the importance of the alkali in this form of metamorphosis. 

 Hitherto, at least, we have not arrived at any proof of the 

 co-operation of the alkali in the further oxidation of the albu- 

 rninates. 



It certainly would seem probable, from a careful examination 

 of the chemical facts in our possession, that this simultaneous 

 action of the alkali and of the free or imperfectly fixed oxygen 

 upon readily oxidisable substances, might afford an explanation of 

 the entire process of oxidation in the animal organism. But this 

 is by no means the case, and the present affords an instance of the 

 danger of being led astray, by perfectly correct but isolated facts, 

 to adopt extreme and exclusive conclusions. The highly complex 

 chemical processes which prevail in the lower sphere of vitality, 

 are not of a kind to be comprehended in their entire complication 

 of actions and reactions, by one individual function taken indis- 

 criminately from amid the involved and inseparable links of the 

 great chain of causes and effects ; for even when, by the strictest 

 application of the inductive method, we have thoroughly investi- 

 gated the most important factor of a process, we have by no means 

 elucidated the process in all its bearings. We frequently enough 

 encounter contradictory phenomena, which sufficiently show that 

 we are deficient in the elements necessary for tracing the whole of 

 these phenomena in their causal connection. Such is the case 

 here. If, for example, we were to draw the conclusion from these 

 facts, that the process of oxidation could not be accomplished in 

 the animal organism without the concurrence of free oxygen and an 

 alkali, we should err quite as much as if we were to conclude from 

 the same premises that all oxidisable matters which have once 

 reached the blood must be consumed, provided only there were 

 enough oxygen and alkali present for their oxidation. The 

 following examples will serve to show the erroneousness of such 

 a deduction. Starting from the proposition above referred to, the 

 opinion has been advanced that diabetes mellitus depends solely on 

 the absence of the necessary quantity of alkali in the blood in 

 this disease, and that consequently the sugar is no longer 

 consumed in the blood (Mialhe). So far as my direct investi- 

 gations of the blood of diabetic patients extend, the most careful 

 ash-analyses do not show that there is any such diminution of the 

 alkali, nor do the analyses of the serum exhibit any diminution of 



