404 [Jan. 15, 



weak acids which had separated from the albumen. A few other 

 small white substances were noticed, which had all the appearance of 

 carbonate of lime, and which were soluble in acid. Albumen was 

 then mixed with gastric juice, and kept at the normal temperature of 

 the body for the space of twelve hours, to produce artificial digestion, 

 when it was subjected to experiment. I should here state that the 

 gastric juice was procured from a dog, which had a fistulous opening 

 made into its stomach by Professor Savory. All symptoms of inflam- 

 mation and irritation had fully ceased ; the dog, in fact, was in perfect 

 health, and beginning to get fat, when the gastric juice was procured ; 

 so that the latter must be considered as healthy gastric juice. From 

 the dog large quantities of gastric juice were obtainable ; and I have 

 to tender my best thanks to Professor Savory for his great kindness 

 in placing whatever I required at my disposal. After the albumen 

 had been digested for twelve hours and filtered, that the solution 

 might be perfectly clear, it was subjected to the action of oxygen for 

 a few hours, when fibrin was formed, though not in so large an 

 amount as in albumen to which one drop of the glacial acetic acid 

 had been added. The filaments of the fibrin, however, were of a 

 more delicate constitution. 



From a consideration of the above results, I thought that fibrin 

 might be formed from the albumen which, after digestion with gas- 

 tric juice, had passed through a membrane made of the parchment 

 paper of Messrs. De la Rue and Gaines. In some experiments* to 

 which I had been led from a study of Professor Graham's elegant 

 researches on dialysis, and which I had formerly been conducting, on 

 the passage of various fluids through membranes, it was observed 

 that albumen, after digestion with gastric juice, dialysed to a certain 

 extent. Three ounces of albumen were digested for the space of 

 twelve hours, at the temperature of the body. It was then placed 

 on the dialyser : it should be remarked that gastric juice does not 

 coagulate the albumen during its conversion into albuminose. 



The digested albumen was kept for ten hours on the dialyser at 

 the temperature of 98 to 1 10 Fahr. 



* These experiments, although carried on upon an extensive scale, are not 

 quite in order for publication in detail ; nevertheless I may state that, after arti- 

 ficial digestion, pure albumen, coagulated albumen, cheese, and, most remarkable 

 of all, cod-liver oil were capable of passing through the dialyser into water to a 

 large extent. I trust on a future occasion to elucidate this curious action. 



