Report on the progress of human anatomy and physiology in the year 1843-4 / [Sir James Paget].

  • James Paget
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the progress of human anatomy and physiology in the year 1843-4 / [Sir James Paget]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the blood. Their solution in hot water formed a very alkaline fluid, which, in all cases, contained alkaline phosphates and sulphates, chloride of sodium, and, some¬ times, chlorides of potassium. But, from various tests [which I have repeated, and found exactly true]aJie proves that—1. The alkaline reaction of the ashes . cannot be due to aua^^ie carbonate, for both the ashes and the precipitates from their solution i^gffipte of silver and chloride of calcium, maybe dissolved in acids without the development of gas. 2. The alkaline reaction cannot depend on the presence of caustic alkali; for then the solution could not be, as it is, neutral after the addition of a solution of neutral chloride of calcium. 3. The absence of alkaline carbonates and of carbonate of lime in (he ashes of the blood, proves that its albumen cannot be in the form of a salt (albuminate) of soda; and furnishes additional evidence that there are no alkaline salts of lactic, acetic, or fatty acids in the healthy blood ; and, lastly, proves that the blood can contain no alkaline carbonate. 4. The alkaline character of the blood-ashes and of the blood itself, must therefore be due to the phosphate of soda ; and the presence of the tribasic phosphate of soda in the ashes proves, according to Enderlin, that it must be in the same form (3 NaO., P. 2, O 5—that of the basic phosphate of soda of earlier chemists,) in the blood itself; for this salt alone remains tribasic after a red heat— the common phosphate of soda would yield pyrophosphate after incineration. He shows also that this view of the alkaline nature of the blood is consistent with the phenomena of respiration, and all other facts: especially, solutions of both the basic phosphates of soda are distinguished, as the serum is, by readiness to absorb large quantities of carbonic acid. The quantitative analysis of the ashes showed that, in 100 parts from human blood, there are : Tribasic phosphate of soda . . 22T Chloride of sodium . . . 54*769 ,, potassium . . . 4*416 Sulphate of soda . . . 2*461 Phosphate of lime . . . 3*636 ,, magnesia . . 0*769 Oxide of iron, with some phosphate of iron . 10*7T It follows from these analyses that the albumen in the blood is not in the form of an albuminate of soda, nor of a combination with carbonate or bicarbonate of soda, but is in combination with the alkaline tribasic phosphate and chloride. The former salt possesses, in a high degree, the power of dissolving proteine-com- pounds and phosphates of lime ; and it is probable, therefore, that it is the solvent of both these constituents of the blood. Milky serum. Dr. A. Buchanan,* by experimental bleedings, has confirmed the fact of the frequent or general occurrence of milky or opaque serum in the blood of healthy persons, after taking food. The serum, he says, becomes turbid about half an hour after taking food: the discoloration increases during several hours, attains its maximum in about six or eight hours (after a full meal by a healthy person), and then becomes gradually clearer, till its limpidity is restored. The opaque serum is generally milk-white, sometimes cream-yellow, or yellowish- brown, like thin oatmeal gruel; or it merely loses its limpidity, and is like weak syrup It always contains solid white granules, smaller than the blood-corpuscles (spherical or irregular in form) which are suspended in it, and which will rise in a white cream to the surface, either spontaneously or after the fluid has been sa¬ turated with common salt. The cream thus obtained is soluble in caustic potash, but insoluble in ether and alcohol; and is considered by Dr. R. D. Thomson as probably a proteine-compound. * Transactions of the Glasgow Philosophical Society, March, 1844; Extract in the London and Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science, July, 1844; and in the Medical Gazette, Oct. 4, 1844. The examinations are confirmatory of Mr. Gulliver’s, (Gerber’s Anatomy, Appendix, p. 22;) and of the general opinion, that the opacity of the serum is due to the admixture of chyle.