AND ITS KELATIONS TO THE LIVING ORGANISM. 277 



liver that in fluid blood the sinking of the red corpuscles increases in a kind 

 of arithmetical ratio, being slowest when they first begin to collect into 

 clumps, and fastest at the very time when these clumps are most fully formed ; 

 so that the corpuscles would, in some instances, take two and a half minutes 

 at first to sink through one-eighth of an inch of the liquor sauguinis, but 

 only two and a half minutes more to sink through a further three-eighths of 

 an inch. It is remarkable, as Gulliver 1 notices, that Hunter was \vell ac- 

 quainted with the clumps of the red corpuscles in inflammatory blood. 



213. The actual cause of the separation and coagulation of the fibrin is 

 still exceedingly obsure. Dr. Buchanan" long ago remarked that fibrin 

 might apparently be formed, or at least that coagulation could be induced, 

 by mixing two serous fluids like those of Hydrocele and Ascites, or of As- 

 cites and Pleurisy, neither of which had, separately, any tendency to coagu- 

 late; and that coagulation was equally caused by putting into the serum 

 portions of blood, clot, or of fibrin, either fresh or powdered, muscular fibre, 

 or other tissues. Schmidt, 3 in more recent observations, attempts to explain 

 the phenomena in question by attributing them to the combination of two 

 substances existing in the liquor sanguinis under the influence of a ferment 

 which is rapidly formed in the Blood after its removal from the body. To 

 one of these, which is contained in considerable quantity in the blood-cor- 

 puscles, he has applied the name of Fibrinopladic substance, Globulin or 

 Crydallin, though it differs from the crystallin obtained from the lens of the 

 eye in its non-precipitability by heat and alcohol, and has therefore been 

 termed by Kiihue Paraglobulin. It is precipitated when its alkaline solu- 

 tion is exactly neutralized. To the other substance, which is closely allied 

 to ordinary albumen, and is chiefly, if not exclusively contained in the 

 plasma, he has given the name of Fibrinogenic substance or Fibrinogeu. 

 This differs from the Fibrinoplastic substance in the circumstance that its 

 alkaline solution must be rendered acid with acetic acid before precipitation 

 occurs. Both compounds are precipitated from dilute solutions by carbonic 

 acid, the latter with somewhat greater difficulty than the former. Both 

 Schmidt and Hoppe-Seyler have been successful in producing a coagulum 

 differing in no respect from ordinary fibrin, by the admixture of these two 

 substances in a condition as pure as it was possible to obtain them. A small 

 quantity of Paraglobulin is capable of effecting the coagulation of a rela- 

 tively large quantity of Fibrinogen. Schmidt appears to think that both of 

 these substances are weakly acid, and are combined with a certain propor- 

 tion of base, and that when brought into contact with one another under the 

 influence of the ferment and also of oxygen, they unite, displacing a part of 

 the base, which explains the increased alkalinity of the fluid in which the 



1 See Lectures, Med. Times and Gaz., 1863, Oct. 17; Hewson's works. 



1 Proceedings of Glasgow Phil. Society, 1845. 



3 Miiller's Archiv, 1862, p. 543, and Pfliiger's Archiv, B. vi, 1872, p 413. See 

 also Mantegazza, Annali Universal! di Medicine, t. ccxvi, April, 1871. In opp<i- 

 tion to Schmidt, see Eichwald, Beitiiige zur Chemie der gewebe-bildenden Stibstan- 

 zen und ihren Abkommlinge, 1873. Eichwald regards the Fibrin as being normally 

 dissolved in the plasma, but undergoing precipitation when exposed to the action of 

 the carbonic acid of the air. Denis divides the Albuminous compounds of the blood 

 into Seriiie (amounting to 52 parts per 1000 of blood), which is coagulahle by heat 

 and acids; and Plnsmine (25 per 1000), which is precipitated by Ma Cl, but redis- 

 solves in from 10-20 parts of water. The plasmine is capable of breaking up sponta- 

 neously into concrete fibrin (3-4 per 1000) and soluble fibrin (22 per 1000), the pro- 

 portions of which bear an inverse ratio to each other. Hence, as See maintains, it is 

 never a question in disease of excess or defect of fibrin, but simply of the relative 

 proportions of the concrete and soluble tibrin. See Kiiss, Physiologic, 1873, p. 158, 

 and Budge's Compendium de Physiologic, 1874, p. 260. 



