90 



that, instead of albumen, they contain a peculiar 

 matter in solution, which is not coagulated by the 

 heat of boiling water or by acids, but which, dur- 

 ing a slow evaporation in atmospheric air, is 

 changed into an insoluble mucus, like the mucus 

 of the nose, already mentioned. If this peculiar 

 matter, which in my Treatise on Animal Che- 

 mistry, I have called tdrd?nne, or a peculiar mat- 

 ter of the tears, possesses the characters, which 

 the French Chemists have ascribed to it, it docs 

 indeed deserve to be fully investigated. Should 

 their statement be confirmed, the mucus of the 

 nostrils must then, like the tears, be secreted in a 

 thin liquid state, and be converted during respi- 

 ration, by the agency of the air, into mucus. 

 This would presuppose an essential difference be- 

 tween the formation of the mucus in the nose, 

 and in those places, where it is not in contact 

 with the air, and must be directly secreted as a 

 complete mucus. 



The Cerumen of the .Ear has been examined by 

 VAUQtJELiiy. When observed after having 

 been long detained in the meatus extrnus of the 

 ear, it is dried up, and consists of a peculiar fat 

 body resembling oil, which assumes the form of 

 an emulsion by its combination with albuminous 



