215 
MONTHLY ABSTRACT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF 
TIIE LONDON VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
January bth, 1836. 
Pursuant to adjournment over the Christmas holidays, the 
Society again met this evening, when an elaborate and highly 
interesting Essay on the Atmosphere and its Influence on the 
Animal Economy, by Mr. R. Lucas, was read. 
Its consideration occupied this and the subsequent evening of 
the Society, the argument throughout being animated. The 
physical properties of the atmosphere first passed in review; 
afterwards its composition was examined, and then the changes 
which are effected in it by the respiration of man and animals. 
Mr. Lucas considered the oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid 
gases in a state of mechanical admixture only, the law of equable 
diffusion of gases keeping them uniformly blended. 
The well-known bleaching properties of the air being adverted 
to, and referred to the deoxidizing rays of the Sun, a member 
suggested that a deutoxide of hydrogen is the cause. Some 
considered that chlorine might exist in it, which is derived from 
the saline matters of the ocean, and wafted by the winds to all 
parts of the globe. 
The source of the carbon, which by union with oxygen forms 
the carbonic acid found in venous blood, Mr. Lucas stated to be 
the conversion of albumen into gelatine ; an organic principle 
not found in the blood, yet existing very largely in many parts 
of the frame, and which differs in its chemical composition from 
albumen, in having a few proportionals less of carbon ; thus 
adopting the theory of Dr. Prout. It was objected, that as there 
is constant absorption taking place as well as deposition, there 
must be also a constant conversion of gelatine into albumen, as 
well as of albumen into gelatine, so that an excess of carbon can- 
not be supposed at any time to exist. The chyle was given as 
another source, and as a third the destruction of parts. But, in 
fact, no definite conclusion was arrived at. The most simple 
view which could be taken was that of the lungs possessing the 
power of secerning carbonic acid gas and watery vapour; the first 
from its being noxious to the system if retained, and the latter 
for the perfecting of the incompletely formed albumen of the 
blood. 
The absorption of oxygen during the transit of the blood 
through the lungs was generally allov\ed ; the union of this agent 
with the carbon being effected by the vital principle, whence 
