1835.] Lymph, Blood, and Chyle. 431 



FIBRINE IN HEALTHY AND DISEASED BLOOD. 



The usual explanation of the coagulation of the blood is 

 that it is produced by the aggregation of the globules, and 

 that the nuclei of the globules consist of bodies formed 

 of fibrine, surrounded by a coat of colouring matter. 

 Home, Prevost, and Dumas, have supported this view, and 

 Dutrochet came to the same conclusion in his galvanic 

 experiments. 



Berzelius has conjectured, from the circumstance of the 

 lymph containing fibrine in solution, that the blood also 

 possesses fibrine dissolved in it, and that the lymph may 

 be a fluid filtered from the blood. 



Muller considers that he has established the truth of this 

 conjecture, and has proved that the red coagulum is formed 

 by a quantity of fibrine and globules of the blood, the fibrine 

 being previously dissolved in the blood. For, when the 

 blood of the frog is placed in a watch glass, before the for- 

 mation of the whole coagulum, a clear thick matter may 

 be extracted from the glass by means of a needle. If the 

 serum be filtered through common white filtering paper, 

 diluted with water, the globules are detained, and within a 

 minute a colourless coagulum appears in the liquid, which 

 passes through the filter so extremely transparent that its 

 presence is scarcely detected till a needle is introduced for 

 the purpose of raising it. 



It gradually becomes whitish, and resembles the coagulum 

 observed in human lymph. For the purpose of this experi- 

 ment it is necessary to use paper which has been previously 

 ascertained to allow the serum to pass without the globules, 

 and pure blood must be employed, obtained directly, by 

 incision, from the heart of the frog. When acetic acid is 

 dropped into the filtered serum, the fibrine does not appear, 

 but remains in solution. Caustic potash prevents the fibrine 

 from collecting in a mass, but retains it in the form of small 

 flocks, which are more distinctly seen when the liquid is 

 dropped into a watch glass filled with sulphuric ether. 

 The albumen of the serum is thrown down in a similar 

 manner. Dilute caustic potash does not precipitate the 

 albumen from the liquor of the blood, but concentrated 

 potash readily effects its precipitation. 



