50 



IMMEDIATE PRINCIPLES OF THE TISSUES. 



Fig. 2. 



Chloride of sodium from slow evaporation of healthy 

 urine. 



mentary substances dissolved in water, and of the solution of albu- 

 men ? and perhaps of the fatty principles. In connection with 



albumen, it prevents the 

 solution of the blood-cor- 

 puscles in the serum. It is 

 also a condition of the acts 

 of assimilation and cfos-assi- 

 milation ; hence the suppres- 

 sion of it in food produces 

 chlorosis (even in man), lan- 

 guor, weakness, and pale- 

 ness, and even oedema. It 

 produces a more abundant 

 secretion both of saliva and 

 of gastric fluid, and thus fa- 

 cilitates digestion. Hence 

 it is needed most if the food 

 be principally vegetable, or 

 in case of herbivorous ani- 

 mals, since this kind of food contains very little of this salt. 



More marine salt than is actually required in the organism enters 

 the stomach in the food and drink. The average daily amount con- 

 sumed is, according to M. Barral, 4.75 grains in the food, and 109.2 

 grains added as condiment ; more than this amount, however, being 

 used in the latter way during winter. It leaves the body in the 

 urine, the feces, the sweat, and mucus. 



2. Chloride of Potassium. (KC1.) 



This is found in milk, the muscles, the liver, cerebro-spinal fluid, 

 the blood, nasal mucus, saliva, bile, gastric fluid, and the urine. It 

 exists, also, in the fluid rejected in choleras, and in that of dropsies. 

 In the preceding alone has it thus far been found. It constitutes 

 from 0.4 to 1 part in 100 of muscle, and only .03 to 100 in human 

 milk. In blood the quantity has not yet been specified. 



It is always dissolved in water, like common salt. And since in 

 human blood the phosphate of potassa is always accompanied by 

 chloride of sodium, and these two salts may become mutually de- 

 composed into chloride of potassium and phosphate of soda, the salt 

 under consideration may thus be formed in the body, as well as be 

 introduced in muscle or milk used as- food. 



