Yet of the supernatant soup, "the fatal intravenous dose for 22^ 

 rabbits weighing up to four pounds was 0.3 cc [5 drops] 

 ..." One animal after another succumbed in thirty sec- 

 onds. "0.1 cc failed to kill but markedly accelerated the 

 respiration." Extracts from all other organs (liver, kidney, 

 ileum and spleen) except omentum, stood far below that of 

 lung. The lethal substance "did not pass the Berkefeld candle 

 N, and was removed by animal charcoal." He pointed to some 

 of its other characteristics. Blood left in the lung was not 

 responsible. When whole lung was heated, the noxious agent 

 could still be extracted from it; but similar heating of the 

 extract, destroyed it. (Chemists see in such fact the existence 

 of a compound not broken into smaller bits in an absence of 

 water; but "hydrolyzable" as soon as this is present.) When the 

 same tissue was extracted twice, the second carried over 

 "something capable of giving protection." 



Wherry had described a material which when added to blood 

 made it clot; and this clotting of the blood within the vessels 

 had been responsible for the sudden death of his animals. The 

 biological effect was allied to the "Theobald Smith reaction," 

 and "anaphylactic shock." A few — like the great experimen- 

 talist, F G Novy — had long taught that these animal reactions, 

 too, were the product of coagulation intravascularly. Wherry 

 found all of them to belong in "the field of colloid chemistry." 



Wherewith, because "unable to continue this work," he left 

 its further prosecution to others. He had opened the way to a 

 long series of biochemical studies. Through C A Mills chiefly, 

 Wherry's lung extract was proved a compound of albuminous 

 material with a peculiar type of fat, neither arm of which 

 alone, as had previously been believed, made blood clot. 

 Because derivable from all tissues (but best from those that 

 Wherry had described) it was called tissue fibrinogen — for- 

 merly it had been designated nucleoprotein, fibrin ferment, 

 thrombin, etc. In Mills's hands it was purified, made available 

 to the surgeon, since, to prove of great service in stanching 

 blood flow in many a "bleeder." 



Wherry resumed his duties — doubled — as teacher. Also, 

 there came more insistent demands upon him from the local 

 draft board, the health board and his university committees. 

 He hated the latter type of job, accepted appointment usually 



