ULTIMATE CONSTITUENTS OF THE BODY. 



87 



posed, therefore, of about eighty-four parts of gaseous chemical ele- 

 ments to sixteen parts of solid elements. 



The greater part of the oxygen and hydrogen exists in the state of 

 water, but the dried residue still contains some gaseous as well as 

 solid elements. It will be seen that, setting aside the components of 

 the water, carbon is the most abundant element in the dried tissues, 

 then oxygen, next nitrogen, then hydrogen, and afterwards the other 

 elements as placed in the table. 



We have now traced the structure and composition of the lifeless 

 human body : and we find that, at last, in the inevitable decomposition 

 of its various complicated organs, whilst its hydrogen and nitrogen, 

 with part of its oxygen and carbon, are restored to the inorganic 

 world in the shape of water, carbonic acid, and ammonia, the rest of 

 its carbon and oxygen, its chlorine and fluorine, its phosphorus and 

 sulphur, and its metallic bases, calcium, sodium, potassium, magne- 

 sium, and iron, with its trace of silicon and manganese, revert to the 

 condition of inorganic salts and earths, viz., to carbonates, sulphates, 

 and phosphates, chlorides, and fluorides of the above-named saline and 

 earthy bases. Its materials thus literally return to their inorganic 

 state. 



In sea-fishes, and in the lower marine animals, iodine and bromine probably 

 are present. Iodine exists in cod's liver oil, and also in marine sponges. 



