636 CONSTITUTION OF THE BLOOD IN 



He also estimates the crassamentum as com- 

 posed of 



Albumen 125.6373 ~\ 



Fibrin 2.9480* I in 1000 parts 



Colouring matter .... 2.2700 J 



From which it would appear, that the organic 

 particles of blood are composed chiefly of albu- 

 men, with a small proportion of fibrin, both of 

 which are radically identical, according to Denis. 

 As an example of the highly complex character of 

 their proximate constituents, we are informed by 

 Liebig, on the authority of Mulder, that the equi- 

 valent of albumen, as it combines with oxide of 

 silver, is 7447, and that of fibrin as it combines with 

 hydro-chloric acid, the oxides of lead, and copper, 

 636 l.f (Organic Chemistry, vol. i. p. 339.) 



The blood of all animals is formed from the 

 same primitive elements ; but as the different 

 orders obtain various quantities of caloric from 

 the air by respiration, its organic particles vary 

 in form and magnitude, being elliptical in birds, 



* From twenty-two observations, he found the proportion of 

 dry fibrin to vary from 1.360 to 7.235 in 1000 parts of human 

 venous blood. 



f Liebig observes, that the readiness with which the complex 

 molecules of organic matter decompose, is owing to the large num- 

 ber of atoms that enter into their composition, and the numerous 

 directions in which their attractions operate (p. 323). But I have 

 shewn that the tendency of the primitive atoms to unite into com- 

 plex molecules, depends on the quantity of caloric around their 

 particles, as no other elements except oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, 

 and nitrogen, are capable of entering into such complex combi- 

 nations. (see p. 517.) 



