102 PROTEINS EXISTS IN FIBRINE, 



blood, are consequently compounds of this proteine 

 with variable proportions of inorganic substances. 



Mulder further ascertained, that the insoluble nitro- 

 genized constituent of wheat flour (vegetable fibrine), 

 when treated with potash, yields the very same product, 

 proteine ; and it has recently been proved that vegeta- 

 ble albumen and caseine are acted on by potash pre- 

 cisely as animal albumen and caseine are. 



4. As far, therefore, as our researches have gone, it 

 , . may be laid down as a law, founded on experience, that 

 vegetables produce, in their organism, compounds of 

 . vprotcioe;.; a;nd ,tha^ out of these compounds of proteine 

 the various tissues and parts of the animal body are de- 

 veloped by the vital force, with the aid of the oxygen 

 of the atmosphere and of the elements of water. * 



Now, although it cannot be demonstrated that proteine 

 exists ready formed in these vegetable and animal pro- 

 ducts, and although the difference in their properties 

 seems to indicate that their elements are not arranged in 

 the same manner, yet the hypothesis of the preexistence 

 of proteine, as a point of departure in developing and 

 comparing their properties, is exceedingly convenient. 

 At all events, it is certain, that the elements of these 



* The experiment of Tiedemann and Gmelin, who found it impos- 

 sible to sustain the life of geese by means of boiled white of egg, may 

 be easily explained, when we reflect that a graminivorous animal, 

 especially when deprived of free motion, cannot obtain, from the 

 transformation or waste of the tissues alone, enough of carbon for the 

 respiratory process. 2 Ibs. of albumen contain only 3 oz. of carbon, 

 of which, among the last products of transformation, a fourth part is 

 given off in the form of uric acid. L. 



