522 
SECOND REPORT - 1832 . 
physiology ; most of the investigations by which our knowledge 
in this department has been extended, having had reference to 
the functions, either healthy or diseased, of the human ceconomy. 
In so narrow a field it was not to be expected that results should 
be obtained equally numerous and varied as those daily elicited 
in the boundless field of vegetable life. 
It would be out of place to introduce any physiological dis¬ 
cussions into the present Report; I shall therefore merely notice 
a few of the more interesting purely chemical observations made 
upon animal substances during the last two or three years. 
Blood .—A very valuable analysis of healthy blood has been 
published by Lecanu*. He found in it a solid and liquid fat, 
which appear to resemble the similar substances found in the 
brain. This observation has been confirmed by Dr. B. Babing- 
ton and by Denisf. He observed also a difference between the 
relative proportions of the ingredients of the blood in men and 
women. Denis made a more extended examination of this point, 
with similar results. The following Table contains those obtained 
by Lecanu from the blood of ten men and ten women, compared 
with those of Denis, who made eighty-three analyses of human 
blood. 
Mens Blood . Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Diff. 
1 Denis. 
Lecanu. 
Water . 
805 
732 
73 
1 7 67 
789-32 
Albumen . 
63 
48-5 
14-5 
57 
67-50 
Colouring-matter . . 
186 
110-5 
75-5 
149 
132-49 
Fibrin. 
4 
2 
2 
2-75 
• • • 
Saline and extractive matter 
10-69 
Womens Blood. 
Water .. 
848 
750 
98 
787 
Albumen. 
68-4 
50 
18-4 
59 
Colouring-matter . . 
167-1 
71-4 
95-7 
127-7 
Fibrin. 
3-1 
O 
<v 
1-1 
2-6 
Saline and extractive matter 
804-37 
69-72 
115-96 
’ 9-95 
Globuline — Hematosine .—The colouring-matter of the blood 
Lecanu proposes to call globuline, considering what is generally 
known by the name of colouring-matter to be a compound of 
globuline with albumen. To this compound he gives the name 
of hematosine. The two substances being precipitated from 
their solution in water by muriatic acid, and the precipitate 
boiled in alcohol, the muriate of globuline is dissolved, while the 
compound of muriatic acid and albumen remains insoluble. 
* Ann . de Chinn, xlviii. p. 308. 
f Journ. de Pharm. xvii. p. 522. 
