ALBUMEN. 85 



white of eggs it constitutes from 12.0 to 13.8 per cent. It differs 

 slightly in chemical composition from seralbumen. 



Albumen is said to exist in a solid form in the spinal cord, the 

 brain, the nerves, and probably in several other organs also ; but, 

 since it is impossible to distinguish coagulated albumen from coagu- 

 lated fibrine in the tissues, this assertion must be received with some 

 reservations. It is impossible to decide whether it is coagulated 

 albumen or coagulated fibrine that exists in tubercle and scirrhus. 

 (Lehmann.) The phosphate of lime in the bones is generally said 

 to be obtained from the albumen of the blood-serum. 



As albumen has not a definite chemical composition, its com- 

 pounds necessarily have not. It, however, combines in large pro- 

 portional amount with the substances previously mentioned, the 

 combining number of seralbumen being over 22.200. (Mulder.) 

 That of soda is only 31.3. Seralbumen, however, differs in differ- 

 ent persons. Sulphur and phosphorus are always found in connec- 

 tion with it. 



Origin of Albumen in the Organism. The albumen in all the 

 tissues, and all the fluids (except chyle), is, of course, derived from 

 the blood. Most of that in the blood (except what enters from the 

 lymph and chyle) probably enters it in the form of albuminose from 

 the alimentary canal; and it is not certain that it can, in entire de- 

 fault of the latter, be formed at all in the organism itself. Such a 

 formation, to some extent, even from the non-nitrogenized elements 

 of the food, is not, however, improbable. 



The albuminose, from which the albumen in the blood is directly 

 formed, is produced by the digestion (principally by the action of 

 the pancreatic fluid), of either or all of the albuminous immediate 

 principles in the food, or of either or all of the demi-solid organic 

 substances next to be considered (musculine, osteine, (fec.)^ The 

 albuminous elements of food, however, which are now under con- 

 sideration, may be derived from the vegetable or the animal king- 

 dom; the demi-solid immediate principles are, of course, derived 

 from animal food alone. 



Uses of Albumen. Albumen exists in the chyle and lymph, as 

 preparatory to entering the blood. To the various secretions in 

 which it normally exists it imparts a certain degree of lubricity. 

 In the fluids of the eye it becomes, in connection with other imme- 

 diate principles, a refracting medium. 



Of the albumen in the Uood, a part is, of course, separated in the 



