134 



albumen while in using the dialysis method this cannot be 

 proved in all cases. 



What kind of ferment may this be, which exercises such a 

 consuming power in the serum ? If the serum is heated for half 

 an hour to 56° C, the fibrolytic power has been weakened but 

 not destroyed. Consequently it is not the complement. Nor 

 does it only proceed from leucocytes, which have fallen asunder, 

 for the activity of the serum is almost the same, when imme- 

 diately after the coagulation the serum is centrifugated from 

 the blood, as when this is not done till after some hours. 

 Most probably in the last serum a rather greater number of 

 leucocytes have fallen asunder than in the first; still the fibro- 

 lytic power is almost the same. 



How is it to be explained that tuberculine checks the trans- 

 formation of coloured fibrine by serum ? The solution of this 

 problem is not so difficult, for from further experiment it soon 

 appeared that this checking power belongs not only to tuber- 

 culine, but to many other uncoloured albumina. If for instance, 

 besides coloured fibrine, hen's albumen is added, the transfor- 

 mation of fibrine is also impeded. The fibrine-transformation 

 may even be absolutely checked, when the serum is sufficiently 

 diluted (100 times or still further). The same thing takes place 

 when, instead of hen's albumen, uncoloured kidney-tissue is 

 taken. And when besides fibrine, coloured by eosine, fibrine 

 coloured by methylic blue is added to serum, the transformation 

 of the eosine-fibrine predominates. 



All the mentioned albumina check the fibrine transformation, 

 because the digestibility of the fibrine has decreased because 

 of the colouring ; the other albumina are now easier transformed 

 and are now more corroded than fibrine. And, as methylic-blue 

 fibrine is again less easy to digest than eosine-fibrine (pag. 6) 

 in a mixture of both fibrine-kinds and serum, eosine-fibrine is 

 most corroded. 



In order to explain this checking, we should also remember 

 that in the serum now occur two instead of one albumen ; and 

 that consequently the ferment now corrodes two substances 

 instead of one, but by this the absolute checking cannot be 

 explained. For by all the mentioned albumina the fibrine-trans- 



