Compendium of Physiological Chemistry 






















COMPENDIUM OF PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY ***




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COMPENDIUM

OF

PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY

FOR

A. COMINELLI

NAPLES

1896




TO MY FATHER

WHO WILL NOT READ THESE PAGES




Biological chemistry is the most important part of physiology
human, being it that points out to us how the organism draws
from the environment what is necessary for life, in what way it develops
from the substances that are introduced becoming active as a force
vital that which was found in the inorganic and organic, not
organized, sol as a potential force. And the result of the
introduction into the organism of oxidized, oxidizable bodies and
oxidants, their actions as well as their various modifications
and combinations is the development of heat, an index of combustion
they preside over all vital functions, which can be reduced
to cellular nutritional functions, to nervous functions, to functions
muscle.

It is the biological chemistry that points to us as everything we put in
relationship with our organism is modified, giving, as a term
last of the modifications, the manifestations of life, all,
from the lowest muscular functions of vegetative life to the noblest
psycho-intellectual functions.

Constitutive elements of the human body are oxygen, hydrogen,
carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, fluorine, the
silicon, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron; I'm
accidental elements copper, lead, zinc, arsenic.

These elements form the whole organism, some free, others more or
less variously combined, all however subject to continuous exchanges, which
they make the number of various states of chemical modifications infinite
of the different ways they travel.

The various chemical constitution gives the bodies a various meaning
physiological, therefore we will follow a chemical order in the study of
various substances and we will make three groups of the bodies that we will have to study:

1. Inorganic mineral materials.

2. Ternary organic substances ie non nitrogenous.

3. Quaternary and nitrogenous organic substances.




CHAPTER 1 °.

_Mineral or inorganic substances_


We can divide them into four groups, that is: 1 ° _Gas _-- 2 ° _Acids _-- 3 °
_Oxides _-- 4 ° _Salt_.

§ 1 ° _Gas _-- The most important free gases in the body are these:
oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and acid
hydrogen sulphide.

Oxygen is found in blood both dissolved in plasma and in
combination with the hemoglobin of which it forms, oxyhemoglobin.

It is doubtful whether it is in the state of oxygen or ozone in the blood
triple or electrified oxygen.

According to Preyer, one gram of hemoglobin in solution absorbs 1.3 cc
of oxygen, according to others it absorbs 2 cc and even more.

The amount of oxygen in the blood is related to the work
muscular: it decreases a lot in the period of digestion and
absorption. Oxygen combines with all elements, minus the
fluorine. It is the combustion body par excellence and is one of the factors
very important in animal thermogenesis.

Oxygen is also found in many liquids and free spaces
of the organism.

Characteristic reaction of oxygen is to give yellow vapors
orange in contact with nitrogen dioxide.

Nitrogen is found free in the cavities of the organism where there is gas:
it is found dissolved in varying quantities in various organic liquids.

As is known, it appears as a colorless, tasteless gas: it is not
fuel or oxidizer. It is found in the air to moderate the excessive
oxygen activity.

It is not suitable for breathing because it is not oxidizing, not because
poisonous, and it goes into the category of indifferent gases according to
ranking made by Hermann.

Reactions: it combines with hydrogen by means of dark electric flakes
forming ammonia; at red heat it combines with carbon in presence
of an alkaline carbonate, giving rise to the formation of cyanide
corresponding.

Carbon dioxide is found in the organism or free that is
in solution and in the gas state, or combined with the bases
inorganic. Atmospheric air normally contains it, and yet it
accompanies the inhalation air and that which, swallowed, goes into the
digestive apparatus: however unlike the oxygen that comes
retained by oxidation and nitrogen which passes inactive,
the inhaled or swallowed carbon dioxide is maximally increased
in quantity, in the lungs for tissue respiration, in the tube
digestive system for the transpiration of the mucosa, rich in capillaries
superficial and for the multiple chemical decompositions. It is eliminated
even in small quantities from the skin.

It is a discolored gas, with a characteristic spicy sour taste, odor
mildly sorry.

Found in blood dissolved in plasma, minimally combined with
elements of the blood cells, combined with carbonates or sodium phosphate:
and it is from these salts as well as from the alkaline blood that it is attracted
in the blood and deducted from the tissues.

Reactions: cloudy lime or barite water forming the respective
insoluble carbonates which dissolve in an excess of anhydride
carbonic and are transformed into soluble bicarbonates. Potash and
soda absorb carbon dioxide, forming the relative carbonates.

Hydrogen is found in the intestine following ingestion of
metals and fermentation for bacillus butilicus.

§ 2 ° _Acids _-- Acids: carbonic, phosphoric, sulfuric, hydrochloric,
fluoridic, silicic: these acids are not found free in the organism
but combined with bases, forming salts: an exception is made
of the hydrochloric acid, of the carbonic acid and of the silicic acid found
also free in minimal quantities in the blood in saliva, urine,
in excrement, in bile, in bones.

Hydrochloric acid exists in the gastric juice in proportion
of 1 per thousand both free and in combination with the forming pepsin
pepsin hydrochlorate or a hydrochloropeptic acid.

According to Heidenhaim, HCl transmutes the secretion of the pyloric glands,
pepsinogenic substance, in true pepsin.

Reactions: To recognize the presence of acid in the gastric juice
hydrochloric, as we will discuss in more detail below,
coloring substances such as methyl violet, la
tropeolina, phloroglucine, bright green, vanillin that it
they reveal with the change of color, but these reactions can be
masked by the presence of albuminoids and peptones.

Gastric juice can still be treated with water and ether: water
fixes hydrochloric acid, ether fixes all organic acids:
this is called: partition coefficient method.

Furthermore, the presence of hydrochloric acid may become evident e
deduce the quantity by adding bodies to act as a base, then
weighing these and the chlorine.

§3 ° _Oxides _-- They are two free in the organism: iron oxide and
the water.

The iron oxide_