278 OF THE BLOOD: ITS VITAL PROPERTIES, 



coagulation has occurred. Mr. Goodman 1 has pointed out that ov-albumen 

 suspended in cold and pure water for some time loses the characters of albu- 

 men, and assumes the nature, appearance, and constitution of Fibrin ; and 

 he accounts for the formation of the Fibrin in Blood in this way. Smee, 2 

 admitting that the changes described by Goodman occur, attributes it to the 

 removal of the salts of the albumen by dialysis, and maintains that the co- 

 agulation of blood is a physical act, depending on the same laws which cause 

 all soluble colloid substances to pass from a peptons or soluble state to a 

 pedorous or insoluble state. Brown-Sequard 3 has made the curious observa- 

 tion, that on injecting defibrinated blood into the separated limbs of animals, 

 fibrin is formed, especially if the muscles are tetanized ; which tends to show 

 that, as some hold, fibrin is the result of the disintegration of the albuminous 

 tissues a view that is further supported by its excess in all inflammatory 

 and febrile diseases. Similar results have been obtained by Bernard. 4 It 

 is remarkable that Splenic Venous Blood, when defibrinated, will, on ex- 

 posure to the air, form a second coagulum. The blood returning from the 

 kidneys and liver has little or no tendency to coagulate ; hence, Brown- 

 Sequard has argued that fibrin is destroyed in these organs, and, from a 

 calculation based on the quantity of blood transmitted through the renal 

 arteries, estimates the total quantity of fibrin decomposed by the kidneys 

 alone at from 8 to 10 Ibs. per diem. 



214. Of the particular purposes which are served by the fibrin of the blood 

 in the vital economy of the system at large, it must be confessed that we have 

 but little positive knowledge. But putting aside its presumed importance in 

 maintaining that physical condition of the blood which is most favorable to 

 its free movement through the vessels, and to its due retention within their 

 walls ( 205), we find that it is entirely on the coagulating powers of the 

 blood that the cessation of haemorrhage from even the most trifling injuries 

 is dependent; that the limitation of purulent effusions by the consolidation 

 of the surrounding tissue, and the safe separation of gangrenous parts, can 

 only take place in virtue of the same property; and that the adhesion of in- 

 cised wounds, still more the filling up of breaches of substance, require as 

 their first condition, that either the blood, or matter exuded from it should 

 be able to assume the state of fibrous tissue. On the other hand, we see the 

 consequences of excess of the proportion of fibrin, and of that increased plas- 

 ticity (or tendency to fibrillate) which usually accompanies its augmenta- 

 tion, in the tendency to form those plastic effusions which are characteristic 

 of the inflammatory state, and which, if poured out upon serous or mucous 

 surfaces, constitute "false membranes" and "adhesions," or, if infiltrated into 

 the substance of living tissues, occasion their consolidation. This increased 

 plasticity of the blood, however, may frequently be regarded in the light of 

 an "effort of Nature" to antagonize the evil consequences of that depression 

 or positive destruction of the vitality of the solid tissues, which seems to 

 form an essential part of the inflammatory condition ; and thus it is, that 

 whilst the central part of a mass of tissue, in which the inflammation has 

 been most intense, suffers complete death, and is carried away in the sup- 

 purative process, the peripheral part, in which the violence of the inflam- 

 mation has been less, becomes infiltrated with plastic matter poured out 

 from the blood, and forms the solid and impermeable wall of the abscess. 

 (See chap, x, sect. 3.) 



215. Turning now to the corpuscles of the blood, we have to inquire into 



1 Fibrin; its Origin and Sources of Development. Pamphlet, 1871, p. 12. 



2 Journal of Anut. and Plivsiol., vol. vii, pp. 210, 218. 



3 Journal de In Physiol., torn i, p. 299, 1858. * Lemons, 18-39, vol. i, p. 460. 



