IMMEDIATE PKINCIPLES OF THE TISSUES. 



SECOND DIVISION. 



Solid or Demi-solid Immediate Principles. 



These are the most abundant of all the organic substances, and 

 while the principal substances in the preceding division (albumen, 

 albuminose, and fibrine) are found in the blood, all these (except 

 globuline and crystalline) exist in the tissues. These, therefore, are 

 of great interest to the histologist ; though most of them have been 

 so recently announced, that our knowledge of them is still limited. 

 They are seven in number. 



1. Grlobuline. 



Globuline is found only in the red corpuscles of the blood. The 

 globuline, together with the hsematine (the haemato-globuline), con- 

 stitutes most of the viscid fluid contents of the blood -corpuscles. 

 The precise proportion of each has not yet been ascertained. Ko- 

 bin and Yerdeil remark that the globuline constitutes the principal 

 part of the mass of the corpuscles. 



Globuline is not soluble in serum, but is so in water, which, in 

 dissolving it, destroys the corpuscles. It is in the latter united, 

 molecule to molecule, with the haematine and with some fatty sub- 

 stances. 



Origin. Since globuline is found only within cells (blood-cor- 

 puscles) bathed by an albuminous fluid, we can hardly avoid the 

 conclusion that it is developed from albumen by the action of the 

 cell-membranes. Those who believe in the oxidation process as 

 forming fibrine from albumen, regard globuline as an intermediate 

 substance between albumen and fibrine ; but that it is at all con- 

 verted into fibrine, is merely a chemical hypothesis. 



Uses. The use of globuline in the blood is unknown. It pro- 

 bably exists in it for the direct advantage of the blood itself, and 

 not as a pabulum for the tissues. 



Globuline probably undergoes its own peculiar metamorphosis in 

 the blood, but nothing is known on this point. 



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 2. Crystalline. 



This substance exists only in the crystalline lens, and has been 

 regarded by some chemists as identical with globuline. Lehmann 

 has, however, recently asserted that they are distinct substances, 



