214 USES OF SEPARATE CONSTITUENTS OF BLOOD. 



being, as it were, in process of organization. The albumen 

 of the blood further serves to supply the albuminoid matters 

 which are required as constituents of various secretions, espe- 

 cially those which are concerned in the digestive process, as 

 the saliva, the gastric juice, and the pancreatic fluid. A 

 large amount is daily drawn-off for the production of the 

 peculiar ferments contained in these secretions, whose action 

 upon the food is necessary for its reduction to the form in 

 which alone it can be received into the circulating current. 

 Hence the making of new blood involves a considerable ex- 

 penditure of the old. 



241. The liquid in which the fibrin and albumen are dis- 

 solved, has a considerable power of absorbing gases ; and this 

 is greatly increased by the presence of the saline matters 

 which it holds in solution. Hence the liquor sanguinis not 

 only sustains the nutrition of the body, but can also serve, to 

 a considerable extent, as a medium of communication between 

 the lungs and the tissues. In this kind of activity, however, 

 it is completely surpassed by the red corpuscles ( 235). 

 Independently of their use in ministering to the function of 

 Inspiration, there seems reason to believe that the red cor- 

 puscles are also subservient to that of Nutrition ; for a certain 

 conformity which exists between the organic and mineral sub- 

 stances they contain ( 232), and the composition of Muscle 

 and Nerve, taken in connexion with the manifest relation 

 between their number and the activity of the Nervo-muscular 

 apparatus, makes it probable that they have it for their especial 

 office to prepare the materials which are to be used in its pro- 

 duction and renewal of those tissues. The saline matter of the 

 blood has many important offices : thus it furnishes the mineral 

 ingredients which are requisite for the production of the tissues 

 and secretions ; it helps to preserve the organic substances from 

 decomposition ; and, in conjunction with the albumen, it keeps 

 up the density of the serum to the point at which it is equi- 

 valent to that of the contents of the red corpuscles, without 

 which balance the condition of the latter would be seriously 

 impaired ( 231). Finally, \hsfatty matters of the blood are 

 subservient to two very important functions the maintenance 

 of heat, and the formation of tissue. They maintain the 

 combustive process, whenever there is a deficiency of more 

 readily combustible material; and they also take part with 



