270 OK EXPECTORATED MATTER. 



Sect. VII. Conclusions. 

 Various kinds !• FfOtu the preceding experiments and observations, 

 rlted^matter ^"^^ ^""^"^ others, which I might have related, it does not 

 differ only in appear, that thevaiious kinds of expectorated matter, page 

 niTorthe ■ "" ~^ ''' ^'^'^'' '" ^^""^ ingredients of their composition, but merely 

 giedients. iu the proportion of them to one another. 

 These a!bu- 2. It has been shown, that expectorated matter consists 



ter^'i'fiH)'re"na-' "^ coagulable, or, as it is also now frequently termed alhn- 

 ted with salts. jnino;i5 animal substance, and of water impregnated with 

 several saline and earthy bodies — that the largest pro[>orT 

 tion of the animal substance, which may justly be called 

 The albumen a" oxide, amounts to one twelfth, and in some very rare 

 ill the state of cases to one tenth of the expectorated matter, reduced to a 

 britUe state by evaporation ; and that the smallest propor- 

 tion of this oxide, in rare instances, amounts to one forty- 

 fifth of the expectorated matter ; but that the usual pro- 

 portions of it vary between one twentieth and one sixteenth 

 of this coagulable oxide to the evaporable water, that is, 

 between five and six percent of the expectorated niatter, 



» . 3. The irnurey-nating substances have been shbwn to be 



Impregnating _ . . 



«ub»tanccs, muriate of soda, varying commonly between one and a half 



and two and half per 1000, of the expectorated matter— pot- 

 ash varying between one half and three fourths ofa part per 

 1000 — phosphate of lime about half a part of 1000 — 

 ammonia, united probably to the phosphoric acid ; phos- 

 phate, perhaps of magnesia; carbonate of lime; a sul- 

 phate; vitrifiable matter, or perhaps silica; and oxide of 

 iron. But the whole of these last six substances scarcely 

 amounting to one part in lOOO of the expectorated matter, 

 it would be useless to estimate the proportion of each of 

 them. It is very probable, that the proportions and quanti- 

 ties of these ingredients vary much more than now repre- 

 sented in different states of disease and health*. It is very 

 probable also, that some of the ingredients may occasionally 

 be absent, and others ofa different knid be present, agree- 

 ably to the different states, on different occasions, of the 

 other secretions. 



*In one case, the opaque expectorated matter in a pulmonary consump- 

 tion, liav in g baen ex-jiccated to brittlencss, became almost liquid after 

 ■i night's exposure to the air. 



4. It 



