81 



coagulated state from blood, the albumen of the hen's egg was 

 employed, which possesses very similar characters. It was found 

 that when a certain quantity of the white of the hen's egg was well 

 saturated with oxygen, and afterwards kept in contact with an equal 

 volume of air during a certain number of hours at a temperature of 

 36 cent., the gas on analysis gatve in 100 parts, 



Oxygen 17'05 



Carbonic acid 2'09 



Nitrogen 80'86 



100-00 



proving, in common with the experiments on the blood and on 

 fibrin, that albumen also possesses the property of absorbing oxygen 

 and disengaging carbonic acid. 



Some comparative experiments were also made upon serum and 

 upon blood-coagulum, in which it was found that the air confined 

 along with the serum yielded on analysis 



Oxygen 16-74 



Carbonic acid 2-30 



Nitrogen 80*96 



100-00 

 while that confined with the coagulum contained 



Oxygen 8'57 



Carbonic acid 7"29 



Nitrogen 84-14 



100-00 



It thus appears that the oxygen exerted a much more powerful 

 action on the coagulum, which contained the fibrin and blood-cor- 

 puscles, than on the serum, which contained only albumen. The ex- 

 periment thus corroborated the results previously obtained with pure 

 fibrin and pure albumen. The pure fibrin was seen to produce a much 

 greater change in the composition of the atmospheric air than the 

 pure albumen from the hen's egg. The diiference in the case of the 

 coagulum and the serum was so much marked, that the author felt 

 anxious to find out whence it proceeded ; and under the impression 

 that the hsematin in the corpuscles might have mainly contributed to 



VOL. VIII. I 



