ADDITIONS AND NOTES TO VOL. I. 457 



in spirit : even if all the chloride of calcium were not extracted 

 by alcohol > and if the transition of the acid to the magnesia, 

 protoxide of iron, or oxide of zinc or of copper, did not allow us 

 to recognise the acid, we might have concluded that these crystals 

 were " hydrated chloride of calcium and lime/ 5 but the determi- 

 nation of the saturating capacity from the magnesian salt removed 

 all doubt. 



In accordance with my former investigations (see vol. ii, p. 44), 

 I also found less hydrochloric acid than Schmidt, namely, only 

 0*118--, while Schmidt, never found less than 0*171 % even in 

 gastric juice which was mixed with saliva ; in addition to the 

 hydrochloric acid there was, however, also 0'391^ of free lactic 

 acid present (11*682 grammes of gastric juice saturating 0*072 of 

 a gramme of baryta). 



There can be no doubt, when we consider Schmidt's well-known 

 accuracy as a chemist, that in the cases which he analysed the 

 gastric juice contained no lactic acid, and that it was replaced by 

 free hydrochloric acid. Amongst other points, Schmidt determined 

 the amount of chlorine in the fresh gastric juice by strong acidula- 

 tion with nitric acid and by precipitation with nitrate of silver ; 

 the precipitate was free from organic matter ; after the excess of 

 silver had been removed by hydrochloric acid from the solution 

 (which had been freed from the chloride of silver by nitration), it 

 was evaporated to dryness, incinerated and the bases combined 

 with chlorine were analysed : the amount of these bases which was 

 found was not sufficient to saturate all the hydrochloric acid calcu- 

 lated from the chloride of silver that was found. If now the free 

 acid of a quantity of the same gastric juice were saturated with a 

 solution of caustic potash or with lime- or baryta-water, it follows 

 that exactly so much potash, lime, or baryta was required for satu- 

 ration, as had been previously calculated for the excess of hydro- 

 chloric acid above the bases in the chloride of silver; this could 

 not have been the case if alkaline lactates had been associated with 

 the alkaline chlorides in the gastric juice. 



(9) Addition to p. 98, 6 lines from bottom. I have likewise 

 detected lactic acid with certainty in the juice of the smooth 

 muscles ;* and Scherer has recently detected its presence in the 

 juice of the spleenf and in leucsemic blood. J In our investigations 



* Walther, Diss. inaug. med. Lips. 1851. 



t Verhand. d. phys.-med. Ges. zu Wurzburg. Bd. 2, S. 299. 



$ Ibid. Vol. 2, p. 324. 



