Muscular and Pulmonary Tissues. 359 



albumen, phosphoric acid^ and potash in the insoluble fibrous 

 portion of the tissue. The numerical results were : — 



Total colloid constituents of 200 grammes of ox-flesh 

 prepared by dialysis. 



Albumen (determined as nitrogen) 3806 



Phosphoric acid 0-375 



Potash 0132 



Proportion 



ca]c.in5-74 



albumen. 



0056 



0020 



Mean composi- 

 tion of the ma- 

 ture tissue cal- 

 culated in 574 

 albumen. 



051 



0017 



In this analysis the colloid substances contained in solution 

 in juice of flesh plus these same substances as constituents of 

 the insoluble fibrous mass, bore to each other respectively very 

 nearly the same relation as the constituents of the mature or 

 insoluble tissue. Other experiments undertaken by dialyzing 

 extracts of muscular tissue yielded similar results ; it happened, 

 however, occasionally that they differed — obviously on account 

 of the method of analysis, by means of a dialyzer not being in- 

 variably reliable. 



It follows that the material destined to become transformed 

 into the insoluble portion of flesh, or ripe tissue, undergoes a 

 mere morphological change, one molecule of the ripe tissue as 

 it wastes away being replaced by one molecule of the nutritive 

 material having precisely the same composition. 



I shall not take into account my earliest analyses, 'amounting 

 to fourteen in number, which are incomplete in several respects. 

 Moreover the methods of analysis then adopted were not near so 

 correct as those with which the subsequent inquiry was con- 

 ducted. I have to report seven analyses of muscular tissue. 

 For the first four, the flesh was taken from the muscles of the 

 neck of as many oxen immediately or but very few hours after 

 slaughtering. For the last three analyses, the muscular tissue 

 was obtained at the Consumption Hospital (Brompton) from 

 human subjects after death from phthisis, before decomposition 

 had set in. The composition of these last three samples varied 

 but slightly from that of the other four ; and the result respect- 

 ing the phosphoric acid and potash effete was precisely the same. 

 I shall at present consider only the first four analyses. 



