Justus von Liebig : his merits in the promotion of practical medicine : a memorial address delivered at the Annual Public Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of the Natural Sciences in Marburg, on 11th June, 1874 / by the director, Prof. Dr. F.W. Beneke.

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Beneke
Date:
1881
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Justus von Liebig : his merits in the promotion of practical medicine : a memorial address delivered at the Annual Public Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of the Natural Sciences in Marburg, on 11th June, 1874 / by the director, Prof. Dr. F.W. Beneke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    utmost ease.1 Acids and bases must always be so mingled in food that the alkalescence of the serum of the blood will be preserved.2 In the cells of the blood and the juices of the flesh, salts of potash predominate. 3 With the Extract of Meat we introduce substantially these salts of potash into the organisation; with a meat and especially with an egg diet, we however create a relative poverty in alkaline bases, and a super-abundance of phosphoric acid, for in the meat, phosphates of salts are chiefly contained as acid salts, and in eggs pure phosphoric acid preponderates so much, that, to thirty-eight parts of potash, we have one hundred parts of phosphoric acid. 4 We come now to the idea, that phosphate of lime has its importance, not only as a material in the formation of the bones, but that it has also an essential share in the formation of the elements of tissue. We recognise that the inor- ganic bases, soda and potash, play a distinct part in the completion of the oxydation process; that certain salts pos- sess an importance in absorbing gases into the blood, and again giving them out; that these and other salts are of immense importance for the process of diffusion. We obtain insight into the important difference in the distribution of potash and soda in tissues and the fluids of tissues, and we are imperatively called to careful consideration as to the proportion of acids and bases in the provisions which we present to the organism. To these few points alone I will here direct attention. How highly Liebig estimated the importance of these 1 S. Beneke: Pathologie des Stoffwechsels, 1874, page 336. 2 S. Chem. Briefe, page 503, and further. 3 Chem. Briefe, 1851, page 546. 4 Vergl. Chem. Briefe, 1S51, page 566 Anm.
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