4 
The Bulletin 
Very slight amounts of the mineral salts, acid or alkalies, in water 
enormously increase its power to conduct electrical currents. Many 
of the organic compounds of cells do not possess this capacity and 
hence show less pronounced chemical properties. Their molecules are 
usually vastly larger and more complex than those of the inorganic com¬ 
pounds, and the speed with which they carry electrical charges is corre¬ 
spondingly slow, with such as possess this property at all. 
Most of the mineral elements in the body are strongly acid, or basic, 
and their compounds have a tendency to become exceedingly active 
when in dilute solution; also the small size of the molecules of their 
simpler compounds allows them to pass freely through cell membranes 
that are impenetrable to many of the larger molecules of the complex 
compounds. Forbes 1 says “The mineral substances of animal tissues 
exist not merely in solution but partly in firm combination with the 
organic constituents. These mineral substances render chemically 
active the large and inert organic complexes to which they are bound” 
and these facts led Mann to say “So-called pure ash-free proteids are 
chemically inert and in the true sense of the word, dead bodies .” 2 
Life is put into them by the presence of electrolites or bodies capable 
of carrying electric charges. 
Kinds of Minerals: The minerals of the body occur in the form of 
calcium oxide, inorganic phosphates, lecithins, phosphoproteins. In 
the inorganic phosphates, phosphorus is present as salts of the mineral 
bases, calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. Sodium occurs prin¬ 
cipally as sodium chloride and to a less extent as sodium phosphate and 
sodium carbonate. Potassium is present mostly as salts of mineral 
acids. Magnesium usually combines with phosphate, forming mag¬ 
nesium phosphate. Sulphur is in combination with proteid bodies. 
Chlorine is in combination with sodium chloride. Iron is in combina¬ 
tion with hemaglobin. 
In the body, the base forming elements are calcium, magnesium, 
sodium and potassium. The acid forming elements are phosphorus, 
chlorine, and sulphur. 
Acid mineral elements enter the body in organic combination as 
follows: sulphur as a constituent of food, protein. If sulphur is oxi¬ 
dized it is burned into sulphuric acid and excreted in the urine as 
inorganic sulphates 3 . Sulphates and phosphates result from proteid 
tissue waste and by oxidation of food protein in the body. These are 
eliminated from the body as such. Phosphorus enters the body as 
inorganic phosphates; as salts of various organic acids; as lecithins 
(compounds of fat) phosphoric acid, and in phosphoproteins and nucleo- 
iForbes, E. B., Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 201, p. 137. 
2 Mann: Chemistry of the proteids, p. 219. 
s Forbes, E. B., Ohio Experiment Station. Bulletin 207, p. 24. 
