INFLUENCE OF FOOD ON RESPIRATION. 897 



carbon and hydrogen taken into the stomach, 

 not discharged as urine and faeces, unite with 

 atmospheric oxygen to form carbonic acid and 

 water, which, like the solid excrements, are 

 nothing else than the incombustible or imper- 

 fectly burned parts of the food ; and that the 

 compounds in which nitrogen predominates pass 

 off through the kidneys in the form of uric acid, 

 urea, ammonia, and the different salts : that the 

 superabundant carbon and hydrogen not elimi- 

 nated from the lungs, are converted into fat, and 

 deposited in the cellular tissue, where it remains 

 until required by abstinence * or increased exer- 

 cise, when it is taken up by the absorbents, con- 

 veyed into the general circulation, and thence 

 into the lungs, from which it is given off as car- 

 bonic acid and water. 



He then shews, that as caloric enough is evolved 

 during the combustion of 1 oz. of carbon to raise 

 105 oz. of water 135, the 13-9 oz. of carbon 



composed of two adults with four children, who lived on 12 oz. 

 of animal and vegetable food, which could not have contained 

 much above 6 oz. of carbon and hydrogen. 



* In support of this view, he adduces the loss of fat and 

 general emaciation that take place in many animals during 

 hybernation, when they remain in a state of partial lethargy for 

 months, without any food. He also relates the case of an indi- 

 vidual who was unable to swallow, whose body was reduced 

 100 Ibs. in weight during a month; and the case of a fat pig 

 that was overwhelmed by a slip of earth, under which it remained 

 alive 160 days, but lost 120 Ibs. in weight. (Organic Chemistry, 

 vol. ii. p. 25.) 



