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the animal body, they may be ascertained by their 

 chemical properties. Thus, for instance, I have 

 shewn that the fibrin of the colouring matter 

 and the albumen may be combined with mineral 

 acids in excess, and form peculiar and insoluble 

 compounds, but that when the superfluous acid is 

 washed away, they are soluble in water that these 

 matters are easily dissolved in acetic and in phos- 

 phoric acids, and that these acids prevent the co- 

 agulation of the blood, by heat that the fibrin, 

 by being boiled with water, disssolves in a small 

 degree, and that the rest shrinks together, and is 

 insoluble in acetic acid that they all three, by 

 the influence of alcohol and aether, are changed 

 to a certain degree, into peculiar kinds of fat, 

 which, according to the menstruum, have differ- 

 ent pungent smells, and other differences. The 

 ingredients hitherto unknown, which I have 

 found in the blood, are alkaline lactate of pot- 

 ash, and some peculiar animal matters, which in 

 all the humours of the body are found to accom- 

 pany the lactate; and which, in my opinion, 

 owe their existence in the blood to the ab- 

 sorption of those decayed parts of the body, 

 which are destined to be separated by means of 

 secretion. I have also succeeded in correcting 

 several mistakes of my predecessors. It was be- 



