Suggestions as to lines for future research : being the substance of the oration delivered at the Hunterian Society of London, February 9th, 1881 / by A.H. Smee.

  • Smee, A. Hutchison (Alfred Hutchison), 1841-1901.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions as to lines for future research : being the substance of the oration delivered at the Hunterian Society of London, February 9th, 1881 / by A.H. Smee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of albuminous matter of membrane by fatty and other insoluble bodies which seem to occur in the digestion of food. Still more remarkable and suggestive are the fluid compounds of silicic acid. The fluid alcohol compounds favours the possibility of the existence of a compound of the colloid albumen with olein, soluble also, and capable of circulating with the blood. The feebleness of force which holds together two substances belonging to different physical classes, one being a colloid, and the other a crystalloid, deserves notice. Thus in hydrated silicic acid, the combined water (crystalloid) leaves the acid (colloid) to diffuse into alcohol, and if the alcohol be repeatedly changed, the entire water is thus removed; alcohol (another crystalloid) at the same time taking • the place of water in combination with silicic acid forming alcosel. But with alcogel, the solid com- bination of alcohol with silicic acid, the process is reversed, alcohol dialysing out, and water entering into combination. A tendency to spontaneous change, which is ob- served occasionally in crystalloids, appears to be a constant property with colloids. The fluid colloid become pectous and insoluble, i.e., coagulated by contact with certain substances such as graphite, without combining with these substances, and the change of condition often takes place, Graham states, apparently by time alone. The chemical equivalent of a colloid appears to