CHLORIDE OF SODIUM 49 



delirium tremens, the sulphates and urea are increased in the urine, 

 while the phosphates are diminished, and that in encephalitis the 

 phosphates and the sulphates are considerably increased, are ex- 

 plained by a reference to the chemical composition of the muscles 

 and of the brain respectively, and to the substances resulting from 

 their dis-assimilation. 



1. Chloride of Sodium, or Marine Salt. (NaCl.) 

 Common salt is contained in every fluid and every solid in the 

 body, except that it has not yet been found in enamel. The urine 

 of those in articulo-rnortis is almost entirely deprived of it. It is the 

 most abundant of the principles of inorganic origin, and is found 

 during the whole period of existence, even in the ovule. 



Its whole amount in the body of the male is about 277.05 grs. 

 " female " 234.9 " 



In human blood the marine salt amounts to 0.31 to 0.37 per cent., 

 and bears to all the other salts taken together the proportion of 2.4 

 (even 3) to 1 ; and the proportion is very similar in the blood of 

 other animals. Muscular tissue contains very little of it, and Bra- 

 connot found none at all in the heart of the ox. There is more of 

 it in saliva, gastric juice, mucus, pus, and inflammatory exudations, (?) 

 than in the blood. Indeed, it always abounds where cells are form- 

 ing in fluids. 



It exists in a liquid state in every part except the bones, teeth, 

 and cartilages. It is always dissolved in water, and never chemi- 

 cally combined in any tissue with the peculiar elements of the latter. 

 Thus, also, it is never found in the organism in an isolated state. 



There is three or four times as much common 

 salt in the blood as in the muscles, and still more ,. ' ' 



in the urine than in the blood. The proportion 



i ^gg^v "* 



in the urine, however, varies with the nature of fe ^ ^ 

 the aliment ; that in the blood does not. There to o 



is a large amount of chloride of potassium in ^ HI 

 the muscles ; and this salt has very generally O ^ o 

 been confounded with the chloride of sodium chloride of sodium 

 in analyses of the different organs and tissues. SSS 

 The forms of the crystals found in the urine, of aci a, nd siowiy evaporat- 

 common salt, are represented by Figs. 1 and 2. 



The presence of common salt in the blood is a condition essential 

 to the endosmosis from the alimentary canal into the blood, of ali- 

 4 



