On the Bases (Organic] in the Juice of Flesh. 287 



"On the Bases (Organic) in the Juice of Flesh. Part I." 

 By GEORGE STILLINGFLEET JOHNSON, M.R.C.S., F.C.S., 

 F.I.C. Communicated by Professor G. JOHNSON, F.R.S. 

 Received April 28, Read May 28, 1891. 



The object which I have kept in view in the research, the first 

 results of which are described in this paper, has been to ascertain as 

 far as possible what substances are really present in the watery 

 extract of fresh muscle, and which of the substances commonly 

 described as being present in it are really due to changes taking 

 place in the flesh during the processes of analysis in short which 

 of the substances obtained from flesh are educts, and which are mere 

 products therefrom. 



And, in this investigation, I have been on my guard against two 

 great sources of error, viz. : 



1st. Changes produced in the ingredients of the muscle-substance 

 by chemical agents and chemical or physical forces generally ; and 



2ndly. Changes brought about by bacterial action. 



This latter source of error seems to me of extreme importance, since 

 it is now well known that profound changes are effected in the com- 

 position of such susceptible bodies as flesh through the agency of 

 bacteria, long before those grosser effects are produced which lead to 

 the development of foetid gases, &c., and which are commonly de- 

 scribed as " putrefaction." 



Accordingly, I shall describe my experiments in the order in which 

 they are carried out, viz. : 



1st. Preliminary experiments, which are especially designed to 

 exclude the first source of error; and 



2ndly. Experiments designed so as to exclude, as far as possible, 

 both sources of error. 



ls#. Preliminary Experiments. 



It is well known that when kreatinin is kept in a watery solution, 

 whose reaction is alkaline, at the boiling temperature for a length of 

 time, the base is gradually converted into kreatine by assimilating to 

 itself the elements of water. 



Now, in Liebig's process for preparing kreatine from flesh, the 

 radical of phosphoric acid is precipitated from the watery extract of 

 the muscle-substance by addition of baryta- water, so long as any 

 precipitate occurs ; one result of which treatment is that the liquid 

 becomes strongly alkaline. It has, therefore, been suggested that 

 during the concentration of the alkaline solution any kreatiniu origi- 



