Liebig Justus. Animal Chemistry or Organic Chemistry in its Application to Physiology and Pathology

Edited by W. Gregory. — London: Taylor and Walton, 1842. — 388 p.In the present work an extensive series of phenomena have been treated in their chemical relations; and although it would be presumptuous to consider the questions here raised as being definitely resolved, yet those who are familiar with chemistry will perceive that the only method which can lead to their final resolution, namely, the quantitative method, has been employed. The formulae and equations in the second part, therefore, although they are not to be viewed as ascertained truths, and as furnishing a complete, or the only explanation of the vital processes there treated of, are yet true in this sense: that being deduced from facts by logical induction, they must stand as long as no new facts shall be opposed to them.
When the chemist shews, for example, that the elements of the bile, added to those of the urate of ammonia, correspond exactly to those of blood, he presents to us a fact which is independent of all hypothesis. It remains for the physiologist to determine, by experiment, whether the conclusions drawn by the chemist from such a fact be accurate or erroneous. And whether this question be answered in the affirmative or in the negative, the fact remains, and will some day find its true explanation.
I have now to perform the agreeable duty of expressing my sense of the services rendered to mein the preparation of the English edition by my friend Dr. Gregory. The distinguished station heoccupies as a chemist; the regular education which he has received in the various branches of medicine; and his intimate acquaintance with the German language all these, taken together, are the best securities that the translation is such as to convey the exact sense of the original; securities, such as are not often united in the same individual.
It is my intention to follow this second part with a third, the completion of which, however, can not be looked for before the lapse of two years. This third part will contain an investigation of the food of man and animals, the analysis of all articles of diet, and the study of the changes which the raw food undergoes in its preparation; as, for example, in fermentation (bread), baking, roasting, boiling, &c. Already, it is true, many analyses have been made for the proposed work; but the number of objects of investigation is exceedingly large, and in or der to determine with accuracy the absolute value of seed, or of flour, or of a species of fodder, &c., as food, the ultimate analysis alone is not sufficient; there are required comparative investigations, which present very great difficulties.