Thoughts on health and some of its conditions / [James Hinton].

  • Hinton, James, 1822-1875
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts on health and some of its conditions / [James Hinton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    had been previously soaked in water and pressed ; in the course of forty-three days the animal had lost one quarter of its weight, and after fifty-five days its emaciation was extreme. The inorganic materials exist in the body in two forms ; partly combined in minute proportions with the albuminous substances, and partly in the form of salts simply dissolved in the fluids. The total quan- tity of salts contained in the blood is seven or eight parts in the thousand, of which common salt, the chloride of sodium, constitutes about the half. Various of these inorganic materials serve evident uses in the economy. Lime, for instance, united with phosphoric acid, gives solidity to the bones. The alkaline salts also play an important part. Through being alkaline, the blood holds its albumen in solution, and more readily absorbs the digested food, which has been rendered acid by the gastric juice. The alkalies also promote the oxidation and removal of the worn-out materials which the blood carries to the lungs, and there casts off. The chloride of sodium furnishes hydrochloric acid to the gastric juice, while its free soda goes to constitute the bile, and other alkaline secretions. It has been found that cows, with whose food no salt was mingled, after some months lost their hair, and fell into bad con-