. III. APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY. 77 



to exhaust the subject of endosmose, which must play so 

 important a part in all the acts of organized beings. It is 

 certain that the results which we have obtained in this 

 series of experiments, and the view we have taken of en- 

 dosmose, lead to a more correct application of the phe- 

 nomenon of endosmose to the functions of organized beings. 



Endosmose promotes the Mucous Secretion of the Skin. 

 The exosmose of a solution of sugar, of albumen, and of 

 gum, towards water, is promoted from the internal to the . 

 external surface, in all the skins examined. It is precisely 

 in this same direction through the skin of the torpedo, the 

 eel, the frog, and other animals, that a copious secretion of 

 mucus takes place. The endosmose of water to a solution 

 of sugar, of gum, and of albumen, is less intense from the 

 external to the internal surface of the skin than when it 

 takes place by the reverse arrangement. Consequently, if 

 we do not admit that this secretion of mucus, and this weak 

 absorption of the water wherein these animals live (func- 

 tions which, for their normal performance, ought always to 

 bear a certain relation to each other,) are entirely due to the 

 phenomena we have discovered ; at all events, we cannot 

 deny that they must be promoted by it. Undoubtedly this 

 function of the skin would not go on, or would do so im- 

 perfectly, if in these animals which live constantly in water 

 this membrane acted endosmotically in an opposite direction 

 to that which we have found it to do. 



Endosmose in relation to the Function of the Stomach. 

 This constancy observed in the direction most favourable 

 for endosmose and exosmose through skins, does not hold 

 good for the raucous membrane of the stomach of different 

 animals. But every one knows how much more compli- 

 cated the function of the stomach is, and that all the sub- 

 stances introduced into this organ are either not absorbed, or 

 are absorbed unequally. Moreover, we repeat, that this 



