Muscular and Pulmonary Tissues. 



445 



5< 



By referring to the analyses of muscular tissue, it will be seen 

 that there is a marked difference between the composition of flesh 

 and that of pulmonary tissue, the mature tissue of the lungs 

 containing less albumen and much more phosphoric acid than 

 the mature muscular tissue. The effete material of the lungs is 

 very different from that of muscles, the proportion of albumi- 

 noid material and potash it contains being much smaller, and 

 that of the phosphoric acid is about ten times less. 



In order to establish clearly the difference existing between 

 the composition of muscle and lung, I have constructed the fol- 

 lowing Table, which shows the mean results of the analyses, in 

 such a way that a mere glance is required to form an idea of the 

 relative composition of these two different tissues. 



Mean composition of Muscle and Lung, in 200 grms. 



1 



Mature tissue. 



Nutritive material. 



Effete material. 



Muscle. 



Lung. 



Muscle. 



Lung. 



Muscle. 



Lung. 



Albuminous mat^ 

 Phosphoric acid.. 

 Potash 



28-070 

 0-251 

 0-086 



19-895 

 0-481 

 0051 



5-745 

 051 

 0017 



13029 

 0-314 

 0033 



3-70 



0563 



0-764 



1-406 

 0-058 

 0-451 



In Effete Material. 





Theory. 





Found in 100, 



Muscle. 1 Lung. 



Phosphoric acid 

 Potash 



431 

 57/ 



Pyrophosphate of potash 



f42-4 

 1 57-fi 



11-32 



88-68 



















The most interesting fact brought out in this inquiry refers to 

 the proportion found to exist between the phosphoric acid and 

 potash effete in muscles and pulmonary tissue— as, while in 

 the former their proportion is precisely that of pyrophosphate 

 of potash, no such result is obtained in the case of the lungs, 

 where the proportions of these substances exhibit no chemical 

 relation. 



This circumstance would appear at first sight to clash with my 

 theory that phosphoric acid and potash must be transformed into 

 crystalloid chemical compounds, with a view to their elimination 

 by a physical process of diffusion ; but a close consideration of 

 the circumstances bearing on the case will show that the pre- 

 sent discrepancy is very satisfactorily accounted for. I explained, 

 in a communication to the ^Lancet^ for February 2, 1867, how the 

 evolution of carbonic acid from the lungs during respiration was 

 due to the diffusion of the gas from the blood through the moist 

 substance of the pulmonary vesicles, the same theory being given 



