TIEDEMANN’S SPLENDID RESEARCHES 
M 
a nnas8 of salt, which, when compared with 
theorig^inal salt, appears much lighter colonred. 
If this is dissolved in water, or if the filtered 
liquid before filtration is treated with some 
animal charcoal, the colour of the salt becomes 
still lighter, and the odour is removed. This 
salt of lime being diluted with f ofsnlphnric 
acid and as much water, after distillation car- 
ried nearly to dryness, and digestion with black 
oxide of manganese and re-distillation, afforded 
an acid of specific gravity I ’OfiO. This acid 
when neutralized with a solution of carbonate 
of potash, and the addition of some pure colour- 
less potash lye, acquires no colour, and con- 
tinned in this state for several weeks. As 
the expense of the galls v^ould be considera* 
ble, Priickner recommends as a substitute, a 
decoction of oak bark, which he found to afford 
a precipitate, or a decoction of the follen cat- 
kins of the common alder (Alnus glutinosa.) 
— Records of General Science, 1835. 
PHYSIOLOGY OF MAN. 
ON THE EXTERNAL CONFIGURATION AND IN- 
TERNAL AGGREGATION. 
(Continued from page 16.) 
XXVI. Somebodies, the solids, fill space 
in a durable and uniform manner, whilst 
otheis, the liquids, vary in their manner of 
filling it. These, air and water, are the vehi- 
cles which contain the solid bodies. All or- 
ganic bodies, asalso all minerals, mercury ex- 
cepted, are solid. Organic bodies at the same 
time have a regular form, which minerals only 
present in the state of crystallization. In com- 
paring these tw'o groups of bodies, in reference 
to their configuration and aggregation, we are 
under the necessity of confining ourselves, as 
far as minerals are concerned, to those which 
are possessed of a regular foim. 
XXVII. All organic bodies, plants as well 
as animals, have a form more or less round 
and oval, or branched and articulated, and 
they are confined by curved or undulating 
lines, as also by convex or concave surfaces. * 
Inorganic bodies, on the contrary, in cases 
where they have a regular form, as in crystals, 
are limited by flat surfaces and right lines by 
the correction of which, at ceitain inclina- 
tions, gre .-produced ridges and angles. This 
has beemsufficiently demonstrated by Rome 
de ITsle, t Bergmann,!: but particularly by 
* Several of the immediate organic principles 
are exceptions to this rule, inasmuch as, after 
having been taken from living bodies or secreted 
in them, they crystalli/.e in different manners. 
Cholesterine, uric acid, and the sugar of milk, 
are, in this respect, among those from the ani- 
mal kingdom. Many vegetable substances, 
sugar, different acids, such as the pure sinapic, 
the benzoic, and others, but especially the sali- 
fiable vegetable bases, such as morphine, narco- 
tine, strychnine, brucine, quinine, &c. ; in fine 
the sub resinous substances, crystallize. The 
forms of the latter are, however, for the most 
part, globular or radiated, like stars or rosettes, 
according to JBonastre, (Sur la forme cristalline 
de plusieurs sous-resines ; in the Annales de la 
Societe Linueene, de Paris, Nov. 1827, p. 549. 
t Essais de Cristallographie, or. Description 
des Figures Geometriques propres aux difierens 
Corps du regne Mineral. Paris, 1772, in 8vo. 
1 Uebcr die Gestalten der Krystalle, 1773, 
by Hauy,*_ Brochant de Villiers.t and by 
others. It is known that crystals exhibit a 
great diversity of forms, both simple and com- 
plicated : these aie cubes, hexaedrals, rliomb.*, 
prisms, columns,!: 6cc. ; but, how'ever va- 
rious their forms may be, it is possible not- 
withstanding, according to the connexion of 
their parts, to reduce them to certain primi- 
tive forms and to certain systems of crystalli- 
zation. § Thus these bodies, as was well re- 
marked by Kielmeyer.il represent in some 
degree the effect of an elementary geometry, 
whilst nature has employed a high geometry 
in proceeding to the formation of living bodies . 
1 1 may be also said, and it amounts to the sam e 
thing, that the forms of organized bodies are 
more complicated than those of inorganic 
bodies. 
XXVIII. The organic kingdom exhibits a 
much greater abundance and diversity of 
forms than that of the bodies not endued 
with life. The thousands of vegetable and 
animal .species, showing so many differences 
in their configuration, are proofs of this. Ac- 
cording to an estimate made some years ago 
by Humboldt,^ there are known nearly 
fifty-six thousand species of plants, and fifty- 
one thousand seven hundred animals ; but, 
since that period, besides a great number of 
new vegetables and animals have been dis- 
covered. 
XXIX. If we compare living bodies with 
minerals in reference to their aggregation, wo 
observe that, according to the expression of 
G. R. J reviranus,** organic bodies are dis- 
tinguished both by the regularity and the 
heterogeneous nature of their parts, whilst 
the latter are possessed only of the first cha- 
racter and want the second. All living 
bodies, vegetables, and animals, are com- 
posed of heterogeneous parts. '1 hey always 
contain solid and liquid constituents, which 
is looked upon by Humboldt ft as a cha- 
racter essential to them. Besides, we remark 
in all, except the most simple, a vast number 
of heterogeneous components ; in plants, we 
see roots, leaves, and flowers ; in animals, 
muscles, nerves, vessels, bones, and viscera 
of several kinds. 'J'hese parts, regularly ar- 
ranged and distributed, are themselves com- 
posed of more simple parts; the tissues in 
organic bodies, on the contrary, are not the 
* Essai d’une Theorie sur la structure des 
Cristaux. Paris, 1784, in 8vo. Traite de Minera 
logie. Paris, 1822. 
t De la Cristallization Consideree GSometri- 
quement et Physiquement. Strasbourg, 1819, in 
8vo. 
t Whenever the operation of crystallization 
has been troubled, and the molecules are pre- 
cipitated suddenly, the regular geometrical form 
is changed, and very frequently round forms are 
produced ; but these, according to Haiiy’s very 
just remark, show a want of perfection iu the 
mineral kingdom. 
$ Weis , in the Abbandlungen der Physika 
lischen Klasse der Akademie der W issenschaften 
von Berlin, years 1814 and 1815, p. 289. 
II In his Course of Lectui'es on General Zoo- 
logy. 
H Annales de Chemie, vol. 16. 
** Biologie, v. i, 158. 
H Aphorismen aus der Pflanzen. Physiologic, 
p. 33 
