320 DR ALISON’S OBSERVATIONS ON 
consequence of the discoveries made as to the existence of albuminous matter in 
vegetables since Dr Prout wrote), and assert that more or less of albuminous mat- 
ter is always necessary, because it alone, of all the solid or fluid ingesta, contains 
the azote which is a necessary constituent of animal textures; and that it must be 
combined either with starch or with oil, or both; partly because oil is an essential 
constituent of parts of the body, and must either be furnished ready made, or 
formed in the body from starch ; and partly because the animal heat, the first re- 
quisite of vitality, can only be maintained by the oxygen of the air combining with 
carbon and hydrogen in the blood; and if it does not find these elements in suffi- 
cient quantity, and in a fit state for such union, in the other constituents of the 
blood or of the textures, it will attack the albuminous portions of the blood and 
textures, and so cause decomposition and wasting of the body. 
We see likewise the importance of oily food, which, containing the largest 
proportion of carbon and hydrogen, will yield to the oxygen the largest quantity of 
carbonic acid and water, and therefore evolve the greatest quantity of caloric,—in 
cold climates; and of saccharine and amylaceous food which, containing more 
oxygen in itself, will furnish a smaller quantity of calorific compound with the 
oxygen of the air,—in warm climates; particularly as the supply of heat from this 
kind of ingesta is farther regulated and moderated by the action of the liver, in 
a way to be afterwards considered. 
3. We understand the principle, on which the wasting of the body is effected, 
either in cases of denial of aliments, or of disease preventing their reception or 
digestion ; 7. é., we understand that the oxygen of the air, introduced regularly 
and uniformly in the blood by respiration, but meeting there with very different 
compounds as the privation of ingesta continues, is the main agent in the process ; 
acting first, as it must do in the healthy state, on the non-azotised compounds 
existing in the blood, oil, cholesterine, er other constituents of the bile, and starch, 
or matters recently formed from starch, and nearly destitute of azote, and which 
readily give up their carbon and hydrogen; next acting on the non-azotised por- 
tion of the solid textures, 7. e., the fat, and causing emaciation; afterwards acting 
on the albuminous portions of the blood itself, rendering it more serous ; and then 
acting directly or indirectly on the solid textures, determining ultimately such 
absorption of the substance of the brain and nerves as causes delirium and in- 
sensibility, and such absorption of the muscular textures, as causes death by 
asthenia. It can only be by successively acting on these different matters, that 
the oxygen can find the quantity of carbon and hydrogen with which it must 
unite in the course of the circulation, to account for its own disappearance and 
for the quantity of carbonic acid which is known to be still thrown off, for days 
and weeks, while no carbonaceous matter is added to the blood ; and the order in 
which the successive changes on the sensible qualities and functions of the body 
occur, corresponds perfectly with the belief that the oxygen, acting on the dif- 
