Animal chemistry, or, Organic chemistry in its applications to physiology and pathology / by Justus Liebig ; edited from the author's manuscript by William Gregory.

  • Liebig, Justus, Freiherr von, 1803-1873.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animal chemistry, or, Organic chemistry in its applications to physiology and pathology / by Justus Liebig ; edited from the author's manuscript by William Gregory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ORGANIC CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY. I. In the animal ovum, as well as in the seed of a plant, we recognize a certain remarkable force, the source of growth, or increase in the mass, and of reproduction, or of supply of the matter con- sumed ; a force in a state of rest. By the action of external influences, by impregnation, by the pre- sence of air and moisture, the condition of static equilibrium of this force is disturbed ; entering into a state of motion or activity, it exhibits itself in the production of a series of forms, which, although occasionally bounded by right lines, are yet widely distinct from geometrical forms, such as we observe in crystallised minerals. This force is called the vital force, vis vita or vitality. The increase of mass in a plant is determined by the occurrence of a decomposition which takes place in certain parts of the plant under the influ- ence of light and heat. In the vital process, as it goes on in vegetables, it is exclusively inorganic matter which undergoes this decomposition ; and if, with the most distin-