On the immediate principles of human excrements in the healthy state / by William Marcet ; communicated by H. Bence Jones.

  • Marcet, W. (William), 1828-1900.
Date:
1857
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the immediate principles of human excrements in the healthy state / by William Marcet ; communicated by H. Bence Jones. 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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    XIX. On the Immediate Principles of Human Excrements in tJie Healthy State. By W. Marcet, M.I)., F.C.S., Assistant Physician to the Westminster Hospital. Conimunicated hy H, Bence Jones, if.i)., F.R.S. c Eeceived February 23—Bead March 12, 1857. Ix June 1854 I had the honour of communicating to the Royal Society an account of some investigations I had undertaken respecting the composition of the excrements of man and animals; since that time I have continued my researches on human excre- ments, and obtained further results which form the subject of the present paper. I have been most ably seconded in this work by my assistant, Mr. Feederick Dupre, Ph.D., and have derived much valuable aid from his thorough knowledge of chemical and phy- sical science. The method of investigation employed m this instance is similar to that which had been adopted on the former occasion; alcohol and ether were again the principal means employed for conducting the analysis, chemical decompositions being thereby avoided and the constituents of excrements consequently obtained under the form of Immediate Principles. It will also be observed that in this case, for the purpose of extracting excretine, the alcoholic solution of excrements was in many instances not mixed with milk of lime, Avhich simplified materially the operations and increased the interest of the investigation. The results obtained are as follows:— 1. Margarate of lime, pjhospjhate of lime, and margarate of magnesia were discovered to be three immediate principles of human evacuations. 2. I found a new and simple method for obtaining excretine, and its chemical for- mula has been established. 3. The fact that vegetable food increases the presence of margaric acid in excrements has been con&med. 4. The existence of a comparatively large quantity of cholesterine in the spleen, which I had mentioned as probable, has been confu'med *. When healthy human evacuations are exhausted with boiling alcohol an extract is obtained, which, on cooling, leaves a deposit. This deposit was examined as follows:— The dark alcoholic solution being decanted, the residue^ was throAvn upon a filter and washed thoroughly, first with cold and then with boiling alcohol. The boiling alcoholic solution, on cooling, yielded more or less of a peculiar substance, in the form of a light granular precipitate, which has been alluded to in my previous communication. The * I introduce here this result, haviug alluded to the subject iu my previous commuaication. 3 G 2