CHEMICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 37 



reaction of kept meat. Only when excess of paralactic 

 acid in its free state is present does the albumen 

 separate from the potassium-albuminate. Besides these 

 two modifications the muscle-serum contains the ordi- 

 nary serum albumen of blood. There is also contained albumen 

 in the serum of the red-coloured muscles a coloured 

 albuminous matter, myochrome, identical with hemato- 

 crystalline. In white muscles this matter seems to be 

 absent. When flesh is extracted with water the albu- 

 minous matters contained in the solution are precipi- 

 tated by boiling (albumen curdles at 65 C., hemato- 

 crystalline only at about 90 C.),anda faintly yellow broth 

 is obtained, which, when made of mutton, retains that 

 name, but when made of beef is popularly termed beef- Beef-tea. 

 tea. This mysterious fluid, which is of great dietetic 

 value to the healthy and the sick, contains a great 

 number of remarkable ingredients kreatine, C 4 H 9 N 3 2 ; 

 kreatinine, C 4 H 7 N 3 0, the former a neutral body, the 

 latter a powerful organic base, which also appears in 

 the urinary excretion ; uric acid, C 5 H 4 N 4 3 ; xanthine, 

 C 5 H 4 ]SF 4 2 ; hypoxanthine or sarkine, C 5 H 4 N 4 ; gua- 

 nine, C 5 H 5 N 5 ; all of which appear in the urine of 

 man or of the lower animals ; taurine, the body obtain- 

 able from taurocholic bile- acid, and which may there- 

 fore, perhaps, be formed in the muscles, and carried to 

 the liver, or be formed in the liver and carried to the 

 muscles, or be formed in both in different ways ; inosic 

 acid, C 6 H 6 lNr 2 5 , and acids of analogous composition ; 

 further bodies free from nitrogen, as paralactic acid, 

 C 3 H 6 3 ; formic, acetic, and butyric acids ; glykogen, 

 the same as that in the liver ; dextrine ; sugar, or 



lients 

 f-tea. 



