“Yes,” he said, then, in a low voice, “it is true, I might very well have been a doctor. The flow of the breast milk⁠—the lymph of the legs⁠—all that interests me very, very much. What is the body?” he rhapsodically burst forth. “What is the flesh? What is the physical being of man? What is he made of? Tell us this afternoon, Herr Hofrat, tell us exactly, and once and for all, so that we may know!”

“Of water,” answered Behrens. “So you are interested in organic chemistry too? The human body consists, much the larger part of it, of water. No more and no less than water, and nothing to get wrought up about. The solid parts are only twenty-five percent of the whole, and of that twenty are ordinary white of egg, protein, if you want to use a handsomer word. Besides that, a little fat and a little salt, that’s about all.”

“But the white of egg⁠—what is that?”