150 PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY IN MEDICINE. 



We will end with this our discussion of observations 

 which indicate unequivocally the great importance of 

 the electrical condition of the proteins for their reactions. 

 Since this electrical condition of the proteins is deter- 

 mined solely through the non-neutral salts of the tissue 

 fluids, we can readily see how important a proper balance 

 of these salts must be for the organism. One will not 

 err, therefore, in discovering, in the purposeful arrange- 

 ments existing in the animal body against the presence of 

 too large amounts of acid, instruments of protection for 

 the proper physiological electrical charge of the proteins. 



V. 



We. are, no doubt, justified in presupposing that con- 

 ditions within the cell are very analogous to those found 

 in the tissue fluids. HOBER, for example, has found in 

 an excellently arranged experiment that the red blood- 

 corpuscles move to the anode in other words, are nega- 

 tively charged under normal circumstances and retain 

 this charge under a great variety of conditions. If they 

 possess in this wise an electrical charge which is similar 

 to that of the blood serum, they can nevertheless show 

 variations in their behavior, as, for example, under the 

 influence of acids. In an isotpnic cane sugar-sodium 

 chloride mixture they become electropositive under the 

 influence of carbonic acid, a change that is again reversed 

 when the carbonic acid is removed. It seems, therefore, 

 as though the red blood-corpuscles suffer a complete 

 change in electrical reaction when they pass through 

 the pulmonary circuit. 



The essence of the electrical condition of cells can be 



