The author first treats of the state of combination of the alkali in the blood. Enderlin, from his recent analysis of the ashes of the blood, has inferred that its alkaline reaction is not owing to the presence of carbonate, but of the tribasic phosphate of soda. The author, even admitting the accuracy of Enderlin's results, questions the propriety of applying them to the condition of the alkali in the liquid blood. Carbonate of soda, he observes, is decomposed when heated with phosphate of lime; added in small quantity to blood, it is not to be detected in its ashes. This may account for its not having been found in its ashes. Were the opinion referred to correct, an acid added to blood or its serum, after the action of the air-pump, ought not, on re-exhaustion, to occasion a farther disengagement of air; but he finds that it does. This, with other results, induces him to give the preference to the conclusion, that blood contains the sesquicarbonate of soda.