SALTS. 329 



gas, then adding acetic acid without allowing the access of air, 

 expelling from the serum the absorbed carbonic acid which has 

 been liberated by the action of the air-pump, as well as by dis- 

 placement with hydrogen gas, and determining it in the ordinary 

 manner ; in short, by applying the method which I * adopted for 

 the determination of the combined carbonic acid in the blood. 



In cholera, and after the use of drastic purgatives, the com- 

 position of the salts in the transudations that is to say, in the 

 intestinal dejections differs essentially from that in ordinary effu- 

 sions; here, according to the accurate investigations of Schmidf, 

 the compounds of chlorine and sodium preponderate over the 

 phosphates and the potassium-compounds even to a greater extent 

 than in ordinary transudations. On the other hand, transudations 

 of any other nature that may accompany the cholera process gene- 

 rally present the opposite relation to the ordinary serous effusions; 

 whilst, for instance, in other cases, the normal as well as the exces- 

 sive transudations from the cerebral capillaries contain only a 

 small amount of solid constituents, in which the mineral substances 

 preponderate over the organic in ratios varying from 5 : 2 to 17 : 4 

 (or from 2'5 : 1 to 4'25 : 1), we find that in cholera the cerebral 

 transudations are not only far richer in solid constituents, but that 

 of these the organic actually exceed those of a mineral nature ; 

 amongst the latter the compounds of sodium and chlorine occur, 

 however, in far less quantity than in ordinary transudations ; indeed 

 the potassium-compounds and the phosphates must preponderate 

 the more, since the serum in cholera contains far more of these 

 compounds than normal serum. Unfortunately, Schmidt had no 

 opportunity of making an accurate analysis of the salts of the 

 cerebro-spinal fluid in cholera, in order to prove by numerical 

 results the preponderance of the phosphates and of the chloride 

 of potassium in this transuda'tion. 



No salts of ammonia can be detected in normal and fresh tran- 

 sudations obtained by paracentesis (see vol. i. p. 452) ; and if some 

 observers have believed that they had found them, this was de- 

 pendent on the causes of error to which we have already alluded. 

 Even in several secretions of long standing in the tunica vaginalis 

 testis, I was unable to recognise ammonia with certainty. If indeed 

 we attach any importance to the analyses of fluids actually becoming 

 putrid, we might then always find ammonia ; and, on the other 

 hand, we must of necessity always find ammonia in the intestinal 

 transudations, since the decomposition of such substances proceeds 

 * Berichte d. k. sachs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. Bd. 1, S. 96-100. 



