492 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



centigrade. The portion of muscular tissue thus disintegrated 

 by the withdrawal of nearly the whole of its carbon, passes with 

 an additional supply of oxygen into urea, which is at least the 

 chief result, and nearly monopolises the nitrogen of the mus- 

 cular substance decomposed. A portion of nitrogen issues with 

 the feculent discharge, which appears to be the residue of the 



fidelity. It would have been of no use to either of the questions 

 at issue to prove the units of heat corresponding to a gram of 

 purified muscle or of purified albumen, if the nitrogenous com- 

 pounds in the urine, after the ascent of the Faulhorn, had been 

 considerably greater than what the estimate of Eick and Wisli- 

 cenus makes them. 



Surely, then, Professor Frankland is not entitled to use his con- 

 clusions to correct the experiments and estimates made by Smith, 

 Haughton, and Playfair, so long as a doubt exists either as to the 

 amount of nitrogenous aliment required under active muscular 

 exertion, or as to the usual proportion of nitrogen thrown off 

 either by the urine or by any other channel subsequent to such 

 active exertion. 



It does not appear from what part of Dr Playfair's lecture Pro- 

 fessor Frankland took the statement as to 5.5 ounces of flesh- 

 formers being the average in the diet of the hard-worked labourer, 

 on the result of which his correction is made; but at page 19 

 of Playfair's lecture there is a table in which the flesh-formers, 

 in the diet of the hard- worked labourer, are stated at 6.5 ounces, 

 from which a mechanical energy equal to 2,329,510 foot-pounds is 

 deducible, the percentage of carbon being taken at 53, while in the 

 heat-givers of the same diet there is a residue of carbon answering 

 to an additional energy for heat work of 7,481,838 foot-pounds. 



It would be better to deal with a chemical compound like 

 muscle by equivalents than by grams and the equivalent of proteine, 

 395 maybe taken as its representative; but the equivalent of urea 

 is 60 ; therefore, with an unlimited supply of oxygen, such as is 

 brought from the lungs by the arterial blood to the muscles, one 

 atom proteine may readily afford two atoms urea, since the nitro- 

 gen in one atom proteine is identical in amount with that in two 



