176 NITROGENISED ORGANIC REMEDIES. 



composition of the new products ; or they are con- 

 veyed to the organs of secretion, where they exert 

 an influence on the formation or on the quality of a 

 secretion by the addition of their elements. 



In either case, they must lose in the organism 

 their chemical character ; and we know with suffi- 

 cient certainty, that this class of medicinal bodies 

 disappears in the body without leaving a trace. In 

 fact, if we ascribe to them any effect, they cannot 

 lose their peculiar character by the action of the 

 stomach ; their disappearance, therefore, presupposes 

 that they have been applied to certain purposes, 

 which cannot be imagined to occur without a change 

 in their composition. 



83. Now, however limited may be our knowledge 

 of the composition of the different secretions, with 

 the exception of the bile, this much is certain, that 

 all the secretions contain nitrogen chemically com- 

 bined. They pass into fetid putrefaction, and yield 

 either in this change, or in the dry distillation, am- 

 moniacal products. Even the saliva, when acted on 

 by caustic potash, disengages ammonia freely. 



84. Medicinal or remedial agents may be divided 

 into two classes, the nitrogenised and the non-ni- 

 trogenised. The nitrogenised vegetable principles, 

 whose composition differs from that of the proper 

 nitrogenised elements of nutrition, also produced by 

 a vegetable organism, are distinguished, beyond all 

 others, for their powerful action on the animal eco- 

 nomy. 



