MATERIAL COMPOSITION OF MAN. 45 



solids and fluids. It is this acid that is combined with the earthy mat- 

 ter of bones ; and with potassa, soda, ammonia, and magnesia, in other 

 parts. It is supposed to give rise to the luminousness of certain ani- 

 mals as of the firefly, Pyrosoma Atlanticum, &c. but nothing pre- 

 cise is known on this subject. 



6. Calcium. This metal is found in the animal economy only in the 

 state of oxide lime ; and it is generally united with phosphoric or car- 

 bonic acid. It is the earth, of which the hard parts of animals are 

 constituted. 



7. Sulphur is not met with extensively in animal solids or fluids; nor 

 is it often found free, but usually in combination with oxygen united to 

 soda, potassa, or lime. It seems to be an invariable concomitant of 

 albumen ; and is found in the intestines, in the form of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen; and as an emanation from fetid ulcers. 



8. Iron. This metal has been detected in the colouring matter of 

 the blood ; in bile, and in milk. In the first of these fluids it was, for 

 a long time, considered to be in the state of phosphate or sub-phosphate. 

 Berzelius 1 showed, that this was not the case ; that the ashes of the 

 colouring matter always yielded oxide of iron in the proportion of 

 l-200th of the original mass. That distinguished chemist was, how- 

 ever, unable to detect the condition in which the metal exists in the 

 blood ; and could not discover its presence by any of the liquid tests. 

 Subsequently, Engelhart showed, that the fibrin and albumen of the 

 blood, when carefully separated from colouring particles, do not contain 

 a trace of iron ; whilst he could procure it from the red corpuscles by 

 incineration. He also succeeded in proving its existence in the red 

 corpuscles by liquid tests ; and his experiments were repeated, with the 

 same results, by Rose of Berlin. 2 In milk, iron seems to be in the state 

 of phosphate. 



9. Manganesium has been found in the state of oxide, along with 

 iron, in the ashes of the hair ; in bones, and blood, and also in gall- 

 stones, and in the blood. 



10. Copper and lead. It was conceived by M. Devergie, that copper 

 and lead may exist naturally in the tissues ; 3 but MM. Flandin and 

 Danger, and a commission of the Acaddmie Royale de Me'decine of 

 Paris, were unable to confirm the existence of copper ; and the results 

 of the investigations of Professor F. de Cattanei di Momo, 4 of Pavia, 

 seem to prove the non-existence of lead also. M. Barse, however, in 

 a paper read before the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, in August, 

 1843, states, that he found both metals in the bodies of two persons, 

 to whom they could not have been given for poisons. The researches 

 of Signer Cattanei di Momo appeared to prove that these metals do 

 not exist in the bodies of new-born children or infants ; and M. J. 

 Rossignon has offered a solution as to the probable source of the copper, 

 as he found it not only in the blood and muscles of the dog, but in 



1 Medico- Chirurgical Transact., vol. iii. 



3 Turner's Chemistry, fifth ed., p. 963. London, 1834. 



3 Bullet, de 1'Academ. Royale de Medecine, 19 Fevr., 1839. 



4 Annali Universal! di Medicina, Aprile, 1840; cited in British and Foreign Medical Re- 

 view, Jan., 1841, p. 226. 



