DISCOVERY OF PROTEINE. 101 



The addition of acetic acid to the solution causes, in all 

 three, the separation of a gelatinous translucent precipi- 

 tate, which has exactly the same characters and com- 

 position, from whichever of the three substances above 

 mentioned it has been obtained. 



MULDER, to whom we owe the discovery of this 

 compound, found, by exact and careful analysis, that it 

 contains the same organic elements, and exactly in the 

 same proportion, as the animal matters from which it 

 is prepared ; insomuch, that if we chednct from* the 

 analysis of albumen, fibrine, and caseine, <he 'ashes they 

 yield, when incinerated, as well a$ the" sniper arid' 

 phosphorus they contain, and then calculate the re- 

 mainder for 100 parts, we obtain the same result as in 

 the analysis of the precipitate above described, pre- 

 pared by potash, which is free from inorganic matter, (as) 



Viewed in this light, the chief constituents of the 

 blood and the caseine of milk may be regarded as com- 

 pounds of phosphates and other salts, and of sulphur 

 and phosphorus, with a compound of carbon, nitrogen, 

 hydrogen, and oxygen, in which the relative proportion 

 of these elements is invariable ; and this compound may 

 be considered as the commencement and starting-point 

 of all other animal tissues, because these are all pro- 

 duced from the blood. 



These considerations induced Mulder to give to this 

 product of the decomposition of albumen, &c. by pot- 

 ash, the name of proteine (from TT^WTSWO, "I take the 

 first rank"). The blood, or the constituents of the 

 9* 



