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72 GENERAL AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL.
ucts, are connected with the presence of water, and that besides this
the water by its evaporation is an important regulator of temperature,
it is evident that water must be a necessity of life.
The mineral substances found habitually in the cells of higher plants
and of animals are potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, phos-
phoric acid, sulphuric acid, chlorine, and perhaps also iodine (Justus).1
Besides, in certain cells or organs we also find manganese, lithium, barium,
silicium, fluorine, bromine, and arsenic.
We are chiefly indebted to Liebig for showing that the mineral
bodies are as important for the normal constitution of the organs and
tissues, as well as for the normal performance of the processes of life,
as the organic constituents of the body. The importance of the mineral
constituents is evident from the fact that we know no animal tissue
and no animal fluid which is free from mineral bodies, and also from
the fact that certain tissues or tissue elements contain chiefly certain
mineral bodies and not others. In regard to the alkali compounds this
division is, in general, as follows: The sodium compounds occur chiefly
in the fluids, while the potassium compounds occur especially in the
form-elements. Corresponding to this, the cells contain chiefly potas-
sium as phosphate, while they are less rich in sodium and chlorine com-
pounds. The fundamental experiments of Forster2
have shown us that
inorganic salts, as constituents of the food are necessary for the animal
organism.
We have already called attention to the importance for every organ-
ism of the salts for the production of a rather constant osmotic pressure.
That the importance of the salts is not limited to the maintenance
of the osmotic pressure follows from the fact that different salt solutions
of the same osmotic pressure are not of the same value for the main-
tenance of the functional powers on extirpated organs. Since S.
Ringer 3
showed that various organic structures retained their best
functional activity in a solution which contained NaCl, CaCl? and
KC1 at the same time, various investigators have given the most suit-
able composition of such solutions. For the transfusion fluid for the
mammalian heart Locke 4
suggests the following composition; NaCl
1
Justus, Virchow’s Arch., 170, 176 and 190. In regard to arsenic see the works
of Gautier, Compt. rend., 129, 130, 131, 139; Bertrand. ibid., 134; Segale, Zeitschr.
f. physiol. Chem., 42; Kunkel, ibid., 44. In regard to the barium see Schultze and
Thierfelder, Sitzungsber. d. Gesellsch. naturforsch. P’reunde, 1905, No. 1, and in
regard to lithium see Hermann, Pfluger’s Arch., 109; and in regard to manganese see
Bradley, Journ. of Biol. Chem., 3.
2
Zeitschr. f. Biol., 9, 297 (1873); 12, 464 (1877).
’Journ. of Physiol., 6, 154, 361 (1885); 7,118(1886); 16, 1, 17, 23 (1895); 18,
425 (1896).
* Centralbl. f. Physiol., 14, 672 (1900).
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