NITROGENIZED ORGANIC REMEDIES. 167 



new products ; or they are conveyed to the organs of 

 secretion, where they exert an influence on the forma- 

 tion 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 sufficient cer- 

 tainty, that this class of medicinal bodies disappears in 

 the body without leaving a trace. In fact, if we as- 

 cribe to them any effect, they cannot lose their peculiar 

 character by the action of the stomach ; their disap- 

 pearance, therefore, presupposes that they have been 

 applied to certain purposes, which cannot be imagined 

 to occur without a change in their composition. 



82. 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 combined. They 

 pass into fetid putrefaction, and yield either in this 

 change, or in the dry distillation, amrnoniacal products. 

 Even the saliva, when acted on by caustic potash, dis- 

 engages ammonia freely. 



83. Medicinal or remedial agents may be divided into 

 two classes, the nitrogenized and the non-nitrogenized. 

 The nitrogenized vegetable principles, whose composi- 

 tion differs from that of the proper nitrogenized ele- 

 ments of nutrition, also produced by a vegetable or- 

 ganism, are distinguished, beyond all others, for their 

 powerful action on the animal economy. 



* See note XLIII. on the conversion of benzole acid into hippuric 

 acid. 



