THE WHITE. 361 



exists between the nature of the salts occurring in the blood- cells 

 and in the yolk ; and we shall almost immediately see that, on the 

 other hand, the composition of the salts in the white of the egg 

 approximates in a similar manner to that of the salts of the 

 serum. 



We repeat that Gobley has found precisely the same sub- 

 stances, in almost the same proportions, in the eggs of fishes, 

 which, like those of most animals, consist only of yolk, and are 

 not surrounded with a special layer of albumen like birds' eggs. 



In thirty hens' eggs I found 466'2 grammes of yolk ; hence, an 

 egg contains, on an average, 15*54 grammes of yolk ; while Poleck 

 obtained 427*361 grammes from twenty-nine eggs, according to which 

 an egg would contain 14'75$ of yolk. The amount of water in the 

 yolk of fresh eggs is liable to considerable variations ; it fluctuates 

 from 48 to 55$. The inorganic matters in the yolk amounted, 

 according to Poleck, to 1*523$. 



We will here add, for facility of comparison, the quantitative 

 relations of the albumen or white of hens' eggs. In thirty eggs I 

 found 690*3 grammes of albumen, or, on an average, 23*01 grammes 

 in each egg; Poleck found 719*742 grammes in twenty-nine eggs, 

 and hence, on an average, 24*8 grammes in one. Moreover, the 

 quantity of water in the white is very variable, fluctuating 

 between 82 and 88$. On an average, I found 13*316$ of solid 

 constituents in the fresh white. The inorganic constituents 

 amount to from 0'64 to 0'6S$ of the white; according to 

 Poleck, to 0*65$. In the dried residue I found, on an average, 

 3*042$ of fusible ash. 



In the ash of the white the soluble salts preponderate con- 

 siderably over the insoluble, while in the ash of the yolk the 

 reverse is the case ; the excess of the soluble salts in the ash of 

 the albumen principally depends on the considerable quantity of 

 chlorides, which amount to 50*45$ (or according to Poleck to 

 41-92$ of chloride of potassium and 9*16$ of chloride of sodium). 

 Soda, in combination with acids, occurs in the white in far greater 

 quantity than in the yolk, (amounting in the former, according to 

 Poleck and Weber, to 23*04, and in the latter to 5'12, or at most, 

 to 5*/0$) ; while the proportions of the potash-salts are exactly 

 reversed, (for in the white we have 2*36, and in the yolk 8*60, or 

 even 8*93$ of potash.) Phosphoric acid is only present in small 

 quantity in the ash of the white, amounting to 4*83$; but car- 

 bonic acid (from 11 '6 to 14'05) and a little sulphuric acid (from 

 .1-40 to 2*63$) are also present. Silica occurs in almost the same 



