272 ON EXPECTORATED MATTER. 



socln, united to some oxide or destructible acid ; because 

 tlie former alkali is daily introduced with the vegetable 

 food, and with the drink of fermented liqnor; and it is as 

 liltle likel}^ to be destroyed, as the muriate of soda also 

 induced in the very saiiie way. But our food and drink 

 CO not, coramonly at least, contain the soda united to a 

 destructible acid, or an oxide, 

 r.xpeciomted 9- It is plain, from the preceding experiments, that 

 niauer not a expectorated matter belongs to the class of coao-ulable 



BQ UCOUS fluid. M-T l..ri^--ll ,® 



fluids, and not ot gelatnnzable, or, as commonly asserted, 

 mucous fluids. It differs from the coagulable fluid, serum 

 of blood, in forming a much thicker fluid with a much larger 

 proportion^ of water : for serum, and also the water of 

 blisters, are quite liquid, although they afford on exsiccation 

 from one twelfth to one eleventh of their weight of brittle re- 

 sidue; while some kinds of expectorated matter, of the con- 

 sistence of mucilage, afford only one fortieth of dry resi- 

 due; and others, of the consistence of thin paste, afford 

 , . only one fourteenth of residue. 



_ 10. But for the unavoidable extent of this paper, 1 should 



bules, which trouble the learned Society with various other conclusions 

 *eem to indi- ^^d remarks, especially concerning the globularity of ex- 

 cate orga«iza- , , , ,. i ■"' i , ■ v ^ • ,• 



jioQ^ pectorated matter, which seems to indicate organization. 



Although Antonius Van Lewenhoeck, above a century ago, 

 discovered the globularity of blood, and even noticed it 

 in other animal fluids, neithei- he, nor any other person, as 

 far as I know, investigated the subject in any fluid but the 

 blood, tril by Mr. Home's acuteness and industry, ata very 

 early period of life, it was observed in pus. 1 have in 

 this paper related, that expectorated matter, especially the 

 -opaque ropy kind, as well as the puriform, is full of glo- 

 bules, and that, except by such agents as destroy charcoal. 

 Are thev or^^a- ^^*^y ^""^ ^icarcely destructible. Do these spherical particles 

 jiized carboi'.a- consist chicfly of Organized carbonaceous matter ? 

 €eo.us roatLct ? 



