THEIR MODE OF ACTION. 3S? 



resemble coagulated albumen, must be in a peculiar state, in 

 order to exert their action upon amygdalin, and upon those con- 

 stituents of mustard from which the volatile pungent jil is 

 produced. If almonds, after being blanched and pounded, are 

 thrown into boiling water, or treated with hot alcohol, with 

 mineral acids, or .vjth salts of mercury, their power to effect a 

 decomposition in amygdalin is completely destroyed. Synaptas 

 is an azotized body which cannot be preserved when dissolved in 

 water. Its solution becomes rapidly turbid, deposits a white pre- 

 cipitate, and acquires the offensive smell of putrefying bodies. 



It is exceedingly probable that the peculiar state of transposi- 

 tion into which the elements of synaptas are thrown when dis- 

 solved in water, may be the cause of the decomposition of amyg- 

 dalin, and formation of the new products arising from it. The 

 action of synaptas, in this respect, is very similar to that of rennet 

 upon sugar. 



Malt, and the germinating seeds of corn in general, contain a 

 substance called diastase, which is formed from the gluten con- 

 tained, in them, and cannot be brought in contact with starch and 

 water without effecting a change in the starch. 



When bruised malt is strewed upon warm paste of starch, the 

 paste, after a few minutes, becomes quite liquid, and the water 

 is found to c ntain, in place of starch, a substance in many 

 respects similar to gum. But when more malt is added, and the 

 heat longer continued, the liquid acquires a sweet taste, and all 

 the starch is found to be converted into sugar of grapes. 



The elements of diastase have at the same time arranged 

 themselves into new combinations. 



The conversion of the starch contained in food into sugar of 

 grapes, in diabetes mellitus, indicates that amomrst the constitu- 

 ents of some one organ of the body a substance or substances 

 exist in a state of chemical action, to which the vital principle of 

 the diseased organ does not oppose lesistance. The component 

 parts of the organ must suffer changes simultaneously with the 

 starch, so that the more starch is furnished to it, the more ener- 

 getic and intense the disease must become ; while if only food 

 incapable of suffering such transformation from the same cause 

 .8 supplied, and the vital energy is strengthened by stimulant 



