Buckmaster's Elements of animal physiology / by John Angell.

  • Angell, John
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Buckmaster's Elements of animal physiology / by John Angell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    These compounds are of a very peculiar and complex character, and, Avith one or two exceptions, cannot be produced by artificial means. The most important proximate principles of the human body are—albumen, caseine, fibrine, syntonin, globulin, and fat. All these bodies, excepting fat, abound in nitrogen, and are therefore termed nitro- genous substances. Gelatin and chondrin are fre- quently, though erroneously, said to be constituents of the animal body. They do not, however, exist in it, but are formed by the action of hot water on the animal textures. Ultimate Principles, or Chemical Elements.— When the organic compounds of which the tissues are composed are subject to complete decomposition, they entirely lose their organic character, and are resolved into their ultimate elements^ which are common to the inorganic or mineral world. About sixty simple bodies, or ultimate elements, are known to the chemist. Of these about eighteen only enter into the composition of organic beings; these are—oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, phos- phorus, sulphur, chlorine, iodine, bromine, fluorine, silicon, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, manganese, and iron. The first tAvo, oxygen and hydrogefi, enter into the composition of all organized beings ; nitrogen and carbon are also almost invariable constituents of these bodies. These four elements have therefore been termed orgafiogens or essential elements. The remaining elements, of which only minute quantities, and of some of them traces only, enter into the composition of organized bodies, have been termed incidental elements. Iodine and bromine are only found in marine animals, while traces of fluorine are found in the teeth and bones only.
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