Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-09-23
Human Body Full Of Rare Metals

renee in nature, the immediate
source of which. like their function,
is in great measure unknown.
OF the presence in the body OF
some of these we have. of course,
been aware for some time. Even
when the human body was supposed
to consist of so many pounds of
carbon diffused through so many pail
fuls of water, it was noticed that,
when burned to ashes, sulphur and
phosphorus were found in the residue.
So, too, in the Investigations which
followed, few years ago, the deaths
from arsenical poisoning of several
people who had imbibed beer from a
common source, it was proved in evl-
dence that the thyroid gland itself
secreted arsenic in perceptible guam
| titles.
Lately, however, we have seen rea-
| sons to extend the list considerably.
| Manganese, a metal which imparts
! excessive hardness to different alloys,
! is much used in the manufacture of
oxygen, and forms the active prin-
ciple in a well-known disinfectant,
is found to be present in the bodies
i of human beings as in those of the
! birds, reptiles and fishes. Boron,
again. a light metal belonging to the
same family as aluminium, which
| forms the base of the familiar borax,
is also found in the bodies of man
| and nearly all other animals-those
| of the trout and the leech, for in
| stance. containing something like L
] per cent. of boron.
/ But the most unexpected of these
strange constituents is fluorine,
| which is one of the chemical group
| of which the other members are
/ chlorine, bromine and iodine, and
which, when isolated, is so powerful
| in it's reaction that it's principal acid,
which Is used for etching on glass,
can only be preserved in 1eaden bot
| ties. In inanimate nature 1t chiefly
! occurs in fiuorSpar.
Prof. Armand Gautier, of the
French Academy of Science, has now
| discovered that fluorine Is not only
present in almost every part of the
! human organism, but probably dis
| charges there sufficiently useful
| function. In the enamel OF the teeth
| he finds as much as 1870 milligrams of
/ fuorine in 100 grams of enamel: less
! than a third of that amount is pres
| ent in the bones, a still smaller guam
| tity in the skin and so on until we
reach the stripped muscular tissue,
| which holds an amount so tiny as to
/ be almost negligible. Prof Gautier's
researches have shown that it is pres
ent in greater quantity in the embryo
/ than in the adult-that there is more
auorine in the egg. for instance. than
/ in the chicken--and that 1t appears
/ to be excreted in what may be called
| the outworn parts of the body, such
| as the skin, the hair and the nails.
The amount of it present at any
| time seems to be always proportion
ate to the phosphorus in the organ
/ ism, which is itself an important con-
stituent of the bones; and on the
whole 1t is probable that its chief
| function is to build up the more solid
and resistant parts of the body. such
as the bony skeleton, and. as has been
| said, the enamel of the teeth. 1t
might be compared to the iron Orders
used in modern building to reinforce
the concrete of which the rest of the
house is made; but as 1t is present in
no small quantity in the brain and
nervous tissues, II may have other
offices at present unknown to us.
Even II this be the case, however,
its purpose Is hardly as extraor-
binary as the mystery of its origin.
1t is present, as we have seen, in rela-
| lively large quantities in the egg, and
it is therefore improbable that 1t is
distracted, SO to speak, by the adult
living body either from it's diet or the
surrounding atmosphere. Yet the
amount of fiuorine found in the egg
of the domestic fowl negatives the
idea that the whole of 1t can be pres
ent in the germ from which the egg
develops by augmentation. The in
ference is, therefore, unavoidable that
the fiuorine--and possibly the other
inorganic constituents of the body
are wholly or in part manufactured
within the egg in the course OF incu-
baton.