530 Chemical Physiology and Pathology. 



ble caseine, (Leguraine) occurs principally in the seeds of the 



leguminosae. These three compounds of proteine, 



albumen, fibrine and caseine, both vegetable and animal, are 

 by no means formed from their elements within the animal 

 body, but reach it ready made. Vegetables alone are in a 

 condition to produce elementarily proteine from their inorganic 



articles of nourishment. Globuline, which was at 



times declared to be identical with caseine, at times with 

 albumen, and was afterwards recognised by Mulder as a com- 

 pound of proteine, free from phosphorus (proteine 15 and sul- 

 phur 1,) occurs in the substance of the lens and in union 

 with haBmatine, and constitutes in the coats of the blood 

 globules, the greatest part of the firm portion of the blood. 

 The origin of globuline can only be from the albumen of 

 the blood, but of the mode in which it is produced we 



know nothing. ~ Besides the compounds of proteine, 



animals also enjoy nourishment from substances free from 

 nitrogen, as fat, sugar, amyline, gum, pectine, &c, which 

 consist of carbon and the elements of water, and are pro- 

 bably employed in the formation of fat, (and the formation 

 of lactic acid according to Lehmann) in as much as they 

 possess all the constituents of fat in addition to a certain 

 quantity of oxygen, which disappears during its formation. 



In grown-up people the weight of the body remains 



on the whole pretty uniform when the diet is regular, al- 

 though not nearly the quantity of carbon that has been 

 taken in, can be found in the excretions. This carbon is ex- 

 haled as carbonic acid through the lungs and by the skin. 

 The formation of that acid develops animal heat. Liebig shews 

 by calculation, that the quantity of carbon consumed with 

 the articles of food, is about 37 per cent, more than what is 

 wanted for the production of animal heat. With active and 

 continued exercise, and thus increased assumption of oxygen, 

 more carbon is given out in the form of carbonic acid, and the 

 formation of fat limited, or the fat already deposited is again 



