36o 



NATURE 



IFed. 20, 1879 



165). What are we to think of a manual of animal 

 chemistry in which the author treats of the gases of the 

 blood in mere general terms without reference to quantities ? 

 or what of one in which the author, among the spectro- 

 scopical properties of heemoglobin, forgets to mention the 

 shortening of the spectrum and the situation of the absorp- 

 tion-bands, or even the chemical method of deoxidation ? 

 What are we to think of the judgment of an author of 

 such a manual who refers only to Bert and Fernet among 

 those who have studied the affinity of haemoglobin for 

 oxygen (p. 166) ? And what of the erudition of one who 

 considers the following statement (p. 167) a sufficient dis- 

 cussion of the liberation of COg in the lungs?— "It is 

 easy to understand how the free carbonic acid is liberated, 

 but not so simple to explain the liberation of that part 

 previously in combination with alkaline bases. Thudi- 

 chum supposes that when the venous blood reaches the 

 small breathing cells the haemato-crystalline is partly oxi- 

 dised into what he calls hematic acid, and this, passing 

 into the serum at the same moment, decomposes the car- 

 bonates in the blood, setting free carbonic acid, which, 

 with the watery vapour, escapes through the lung tissue 

 into the respiratory passages." 



The salts of the blood are dismissed with bare enume- 

 ration. 



But it is in the section on Food and the oxidations 

 of the body (in Part II,), that the author discovers 

 the appalling inaccuracy of his physiology. In many 

 statements he seems to assign great importance to oxi- 

 dations occurring in the blood and even in the lungs. 

 Thus on p. 152 he speaks of "alcohol which must be 

 placed side by side with fat as a respiratory food or sub- 

 stance which admits of oxidation in the lungs." Again 

 (p. 154), " From the fact that oxidation in the lungs is a 

 process of combustion and the source of muscular power, 

 the foods which undergo this process are termed heat- 

 producers ; but we shall see presently that it is by no 

 means clear that blood oxidation is attended directly with 

 the evolution of animal heat " : (he is here alluding to 

 certain views of a Dr. Hake to be immediately referred 

 to). In other parts of the book, also, the same exagger- 

 ated importance seems to be attached to oxidations in 

 the lungs and blood. Thus, at p, 321, he inclines to the 

 view that " the cerebro-spinal system does not generate 

 its own force, but derives it through the chemical 

 changes of the lungs." See also at p. 463, where a 

 similar statement is included in the chapter on " Charac- 

 ter." And finally, on p. 198, speaking of the seat of 

 production of urea, the author says that " more modern 

 researches tend to show that vitality consists more in the 

 •changes occurring in the blood, and that these changes 

 ;.inay result in the direct production of urea." 



These statements are clearly made in the spirit of 

 those who hold that the interior of the blood-capillaries 

 is the arena of oxidations, if they do not indeed take us 

 back to the view of Lavoisier, who considered the lungs 

 to be the heating-furnaces of the body. The latter view, 

 ■we need hardly say, was long ago given up: the former 

 is not seriously, advocated by any recent physiologist. 

 The lungs and the blood, like most of the organised 

 tissues, doubtless suffer oxidation in the performance of 

 their functions ; but the degree of it is unimportant as 

 a source of- heat compared with the universal oxidation 



of other active organs. Had the author adhered 

 throughout to the view under the influence of which the 

 above statements were set down, he would at least have 

 escaped the charge of inconsistency. But this was 

 hardly possible. In the course of his reading and ex- 

 tracting among modern papers for the purposes of this 

 book, he could not but meet references, direct or implied, 

 to the generally received doctrine of the origin of animal 

 heat in the functional oxidations of tissue-cells ; and we 

 therefore find that, side by side with the false, the true 

 doctrine is taught. 



But, notwithstanding that Mr. Kingzett's physiology, 

 even at a point which peculiarly affects the chemist, is 

 unsound and wavering, he yet ventures to enlarge upon 

 m3.tters of mere speculative interest which have but a 

 superficial connection with his subject. We shall quote 

 the author's own words at the page where the subject 

 is most fully dealt with, though by no means the only 

 page where it is to be found. We are very sorry we 

 cannot give the whole of it. The author is citing in his 

 own words — and citing with approval — the views of Dr. 

 Thos. G. Hake, M.D,, F.CS., which are contained in a 

 paper entitled "On Vital Force : its Pulmonic Origin and 

 the General Laws of its Metamorphoses," 1854 and 

 1867. "He (Dr. Hake) believes that the chemical 

 changes as they occur in the blood system, and com- 

 prised in the act of oxidation, do not result in the evolu- 

 tion of heat, but force, which becomes electric by the 

 agency of the blood corpuscles ; and it is certain 

 that this is perfectly consistent with what we know 

 of cell-life. On this hypothesis, the blood-cells form 

 chains and conductors for the electric current thus 

 generated, and this is subsequently metamorphosed 

 into heat at every point of the system. On reach- 

 ing the cerebro-spinal centres it becomes vital force — 

 another name for electric force— and this becomes 

 eventually heat, namely, when it is transmitted to enable 

 the consummation of vital acts, such as sensation, muscu- 

 lar motion, or secretion, Faraday and Du Bois Reymond, 

 and hosts of other experimental inquirers, have insisted 

 on the identity of electrical and vital force, and the ex- 

 periments of Du Bois Reymond in particular, go to prove 

 that nerve force is only electric force manifested through 

 media not met with out of the living bodies." . . . "Our 

 author even goes further, and with consummate skill, 

 reasons that when this cerebro-spinal force is united in 

 action within the same organic medium with other forces 

 influencing us from without, viz., light, sound, heat, &c., 

 new results are attained, and phenomena of sense and 

 intelligence are observed." Why, he goes on to ask 

 (whether the question is Mr. Kingzett's own, or only Dr. 

 Hake's, endorsed by Mr. Kingzett, is not clear), why, in 

 anaemia, does the brain lose somewhat of its intense vital 

 force? "Because," he answers, "the source of vital 

 force, viz., blood oxidation, is interfered with." 



We have merely to add, before leaving this section, 

 that, as a matter of course, the fine investigations of 

 Prof. Hermann into the chemical changes in contracting 

 muscle, upon which so much of our knowledge of cell- 

 function in its chemical aspect is based, seems to have 

 eluded Mr. Kingzett' s eye altogether. 



Part V. Mr. Kingzett heads " Chemical and Philosophi- 

 cal Subjects." We shall say nothing further respecting 



