([5]) The slow conversion of phosphorus into phosphoric acid takes place in the animal organism; its gradual oxidation in the open air gives rise only to an imperfectly oxidised body—phosphorous acid. But the latter fact does not invalidate the general proposition, that the heat emitted by a substance undergoing the process of oxidation is proportionate to the amount of oxygen with which it combines, and is not influenced by the length of time occupied by the process, further than this, that if the oxidation be very rapidly effected, a portion of the heat will be converted into an equivalent amount of light.
([6]) This statement is not absolutely correct, but the range of variation is confined within such narrow limits as to be quite insignificant.
([7]) Doubt has recently been thrown on the truth of this belief by Frankland, Fick, and Wislicenus.
([8]) The results of Savory's experiments on rats appear to prove that animals can live on food destitute of fat, sugar, starch, or any other fat-forming substance. I think, however, that animals could hardly thrive on purely nitrogenous food. The conclusions which certain late writers, who object to Liebig's theory of animal heat, have deduced from Savory's investigations, appear to me to be quite unfounded.
([9]) So termed because it is the basis of the common oils; the fluid portion of fat is composed of oleine.