Chemical Physiology and Pathology, 539 



subject, he has obtained this general result, that in scrofula, 

 salt is not present in sufficient quantity for the produc- 

 tion of the necessary supply of bile, while in scurvy, salt is 

 present in excess, and the amount of articles of diet free 

 from nitrogen is diminished, which again are the most power- 

 ful causes of scrofula. Both conditions are attended by an 

 increased action of oxygen on proteine. In scrofula and 

 tuberculosis deposits of unconsumed proteine take place — in 

 scurvy, owing to the sea-air being rich in oxygen, there is a 

 complete consumption, and a loss of proteine. 



As regards lactic acid, to which Lehmann assigns so im- 

 portant a physiological action in the body, and which he 

 considers to be a universal solvent and agent of transportation, 

 as well as a material element of the organism, although it can 

 nowhere be found, according to Liebig, it may be assumed 

 from the more recent observations, that its formation is unne- 

 cessary to the production of the ordinary vital phenomena, 

 and that it is an imperfectly excrementitious matter (formed 

 in the place of carbonic acid). Produced in small quantity 

 from vegetables in the stomach, it is consumed by the respira- 

 tory process, and converted into carbonic acid. Large quan- 

 tities of it are abnormal, and occur in the various excretions : 

 they produce a lactic acid diathesis, which affords the materia 

 peccans to scrofula, rickets, chronic eruptions, &c. We may 

 add, that increased formation of lactic acid, and diminished 

 secretion of bile accompany each other. Liebig denies the 

 existence of this acid in the animal fluids. Berzelius still 

 believes in it, and Pelouze seems to attribute to it important 

 functions in the animal economy. 



As in plants the presence of a certain quantity of inorganic 

 matters is necessary (according to Liebig), so also is it in 

 animals. The blood especially, as the centre of nutrition, 

 manifests a tendency to preserve its inorganic constituents in 

 a medium or normal state, in as much as on the one hand, it 

 gets rid of all salts, &c, whenever they enter it in more than 



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