78 INTRODUCTION. 



composition, and which are continually changed into each 

 other. The fluids are very abundant, and their mass is great- 

 ly superior to that of the solids. The exact proportion of the 

 one to the other, however, can not he determined, because on 

 the one hand, certain fluids, as oil, separate from the solids 

 with great difficulty, and on the other, many of the solids can 

 be rendered fluid, and during dessication, disappear among 

 the fluids, and are dissipated with them. To determine this 

 proportion of the liquids to the solids, however, attempts have 

 been made, both by dessicating the parts in stoves or ovens, 

 and by mummifaction; some have considered the proportion 

 as six of the fluids, to one of the solids, while others place it 

 as nine to one. The examination of a mummy, gave a still 

 greater proportion, as this adult mummy weighed only seven 

 and a half pounds. But could the proportion be exactly 

 ascertained in any one case, it would vary according to'the 

 individual, the age, sex, constitution &c., inevitably occasion- 

 ing a marked difference. 



Both the solids and fluids are formed of globules, and of an 

 amorphous substance, liquid in the one, and concrete in the 

 other. 



70. The chemical composition* of the solids and fluids of 

 the human body, results from a certain number of immediate 

 materials, the chief of which are gelatine, albumen, mucus, 

 fibrine, oil, water, sugar resin, urea, picrocholine, osmazome, 

 zoohematine, phosophate and carbonate of lime, &c. These 

 substances themselves are compound, and the ultimate elements 

 found in the human body, are oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitro- 

 gen, phosphorus, calciunijsulphur, potassium, sodium, chlorine, 

 iron and manganese we even find magnesium and silicium. 



These elementary substances, in order to form the imme- 

 diate materials, and these latter, to compose the solid and fluid 

 parts of the human body, are combined in the acts of nutrition 

 and generation in a way that chemistry can not imitate: and it 

 is precisely this act of formation or organization that charac- 

 terizes life. 



* See Orfila. Chimie Medicale. 



