CHEMICAL RESEARCHES ON THE ANIMAL FLUIDS. ^O 



6. In the examination of this fluid, I availed myself with Analysis of it 

 some advantages of those modes of electrochemical ana- ^^ ekctricitf. 

 lysis, which on a former occasion 1 have described to this 

 Society*. 



When the lymph was submitted to the electrical action of 

 a battery, consisting of twenty pairs of four inch plates of 

 copper and zinc, there was an evolution of alkaline matter 

 at the negative surface, and portions of coagulated albumen 

 were separated. As far as the small quantities on which I 

 operated enabled me to ascertain, muriatic acid only was 

 evolved at the positive surface. 



IV. Some Remarks on the Analyiiis of the Serum of Blood. 



This fluid has been so frequently and fully examined by Sernmof 

 chemists, that I shall not entei' into a detailed account of its ° 

 composition, but merely state such circumstances respecting 

 it as relate particularly to the present inquiry, and have not 

 hitherto been noticed by the experimentalists to whom 1 have 

 alluded. 



The fluid which oozes from serum that has been coagu- Serosiiy. 

 lated by heat, and which, by physiologists, is termed serositi/, 

 is usually regarded as consisting of gelatine, with some 

 uncombined soda, and minute portions of saline substances, 

 such as muriate of soda and of potash, and phosphate of 

 lime and of ammonia. Dr. Bostock regards it as mucusf. 



From some experiments which I made upon the serum of 

 blood, on a former occasion, I was induced to regard the 

 serosity as a compound of albumen with excess of alkali, 

 and to consider the coagulation of the serum analogous to 

 that of the white of egg, and of the other varieties of liquid 

 albumen. 



To ascertain this point, and to discover whether gelatine Examinati3>Ti 

 exists in the serum, I instituted the following experiments. 



Two fluid ounces of pure serum were heated in a water 

 bath until perfectly coagulated : the coigulum, cut into 

 pieces, was digested for some hours in four fluid ounces of 



• Phil. Trans I809, p. 373 [Joum. vol, XXVI, p. i4.] 



t Tran<:aovions of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, 

 ^oL 1, p, '73.f 



distilled 



