On the Composition of the Muscles in the Animal Series. 13 



C = 19-5 



H — ..... 59 



K sdi 10-5 



S = 24-0 



O = - 40-0 



Took) 



These analytical data with the other characteristics, show that 

 the substance from mollusks is identical with a very remarkable 

 material discovered by Grmelin in the bile of the vertebrated ani- 

 mals, which he calls taurine. 



To give the last degree of certainty to this interesting fact we 

 asked M. de Senarmont to determine the crystalline form of the 

 substance obtained from the mollusks ; and his crystallographic 

 determination is a further confirmation of the identity of taurine 

 from the bile, and that from the muscles of oysters and cuttle- 

 fish. The presence in the muscles of mollusks of a substance 

 containing 25 per cent of sulphur, which till now has been 

 found only in the bile, is an important physiological fact ; and it 

 seem to us probable, that by directing attention to taurine, the 

 ideas which have hitherto been expressed as to the function of 

 this interesting substance may be modified. Taurine, in the dis- 

 tinctness of its crystalline forms, may be compared to urea, and 

 it presents both chemically and physiologically some analogy to 

 that base of animal origin. Both have been artificially produced. 

 M. Strecker has shown that isethionate of ammonia, when heated, 

 produces taurine. It has always been supposed that this sub- 

 stance was a result of the decomposition of sulphuric acid in the 

 bile, and it has been looked upon as an original substance in 

 the body. "We think that the results published in this article, 

 are likely to modify these opinions, showing that taurine does 

 not originate in the liver, and that it is much more abundant in 

 the animal organization than was generally supposed. These are 

 the chief facts which we present. 



Although in this first essay we have examined only a few of 

 the proximate principles of muscles, and have analyzed but a 

 small part of the different groups of the animal series, yet the 

 results confirm a general fact of great importance, set forth in 

 our essay on eggs : namely, that analytical chemistry, while cor- 

 roborating to some extent the principles which from the first 

 have been used in zoological classification, establishes as a new 

 criterion of distinction, the existence of different substances in 

 animals that are fundamentally different in organization. 



