124 RINDERPEST. 



tive of the mineral constituents of the animal economy. We 

 might, had our limits permitted, also have adduced the salts of 

 potash and lime; of which nitre and the iodide and chlorate of 

 potash and the phosphite of lime are the representatives in 

 medical practice now most commonly in use. But of the non- 

 mineral constituents, it is understood that the carbonaceous 

 element of the animal frame (through vegetables) is derived 

 from Carbonic Acid, two of whose analogues, as therapeutic 

 agents, we have adverted to ; that the non-nitrogenized ele- 

 ment (as in sugar, starch, oils, &c.) derives its hydrogen from 

 water ; while the nitrogenized elements (as in muscle, gluten, 

 &c.) take their nitrogen from Ammonia, 



But as the uses of water are well known, and we have pre- 

 viously expressed our views as to the value of ammonia as a 

 medicinal agent, we may be considered as having sufficiently 

 dwelt upon the typal forms of blood-food, and may pass 

 to the second class, of those for which the claim has been 

 made, of specificity in the Pest. 



On this class, the one which embraces antagonistic fer- 

 ments, we shall not dwell long ; as we will not undertake to 

 discuss and do not care even to point to those which in 

 putrescent cheese or meat (as in badly prepared Bologna 

 sausage), when introduced into the human stomach, have 

 produced such subversion of the natural fermenting power 

 of that organ and its adjuncts, as in many instances to baffle 

 all medical skill. 



It is our purpose to treat in this class only of yeast, which, 

 as we have seen (p. 100), has been said to have been success- 

 fully tried as a remedy for the Pest ; and our view of it as a 

 remedy will be chiefly by way of comparison. 



Yeast deports itself in the presence of many agents and 

 re-agents, as the ferments of zymotic disease are believed to 

 do, and may in this respect be regarded as their type. As 

 familiar as the common mind is with this substance, its sci- 

 entific definition may not find such ready discernment. It is 

 a compound of nitrogen in the state of putrefaction or 

 eremacausis (slow combustion or decay), possessing the 

 power of causing fermentation in sugar or non-nitrogenized 



