CHONDRTN. 399 



analysis of chondrin ; he found that besides the ordinary elements 

 of animal substances it contains a little free sulphur, and that it 

 yields more than 4 of an ash consisting chiefly of bone-earth. It 

 has subsequently also been analysed by Scherer* and Schroderf. 

 The following are the results of their analyses : 



100-00 100-000 



From these results Mulder constructs the formula C 32 H 26 N 4 O 14 

 and Scherer, C 48 H 40 N 6 O 20 . 



Preparation. Chondrin is most readily obtained by boiling the 

 cartilages of the ribs, larynx, or joints, for from 18 to 24 hours in 

 water ; to purify it we must adopt the same means as are recom- 

 mended for glutin, and we must extract the dried residue with 

 alcohol. 



Physiological Relations. 



Occurrence. The remarks which have been already made re- 

 garding the occurrence of glutin in the animal organism, are equally 

 applicable in relation to chondrin. Chondrin does not occur ready 

 formed in the organism, but is produced by the prolonged boiling 

 of certain tissues in water ; all permanent cartilages in a healthy 

 state yield chondrin on boiling. Mullens discovery that bone- 

 cartilage not only yields chondrin before ossification, but also some- 

 times after it has undergone morbid changes, is very remarkable, 

 and shows that chondrin and glutin, notwithstanding their perfectly 

 different constitution, stand in a definite relation to one another ; 

 but what that relation is, we cannot at present conjecture. 



There are, further, in the animal organism, several bodies which 

 yield a gelatin distinct both from chondrin and glutin. Thus, 

 Miiller has shown that in osteomalacia where there is sometimes a 

 considerable diminution of the phosphate of lime, the bones yield 

 neither glutin nor chondrin ; that the elastic tissue of the arteries, 

 by prolonged boiling, yields a kind of gelatin which only differs from 

 chondrin in yielding no precipitate with sulphate of peroxide of 

 iron ; that the bones of cartilaginous fishes are converted by boiling 



* Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 40, S. 40-51. 

 t Ibid. Bd. 45, S. 52-58. 



