903 
very strong continuous currents are led through the fibrinalkali- and 
acidhydrosoles, everything is changed. 
The observation that under the influence of the electric current 
fibrin in natural coagulation-fluids is secreted at the same (positive) 
electrode as fibrin in artificial fibrinalkalihydrosoles confirms, as it 
seems to me, the accuracy of a conclusion which I arrived at by 
another way before, viz. that fibrin in natural coagulation substances, 
hence also in blood, is present in a preformed state as an alkali- 
hydrosole. That, therefore, the fibrinssecretion in natural coagulation 
fluids, and consequently the clotting of blood, is in principle based 
upon a transition from the alkalihydrosole- into the gel-state. 
Elsewhere grounds have been adduced for the opinion that fibrin 
in its optically empty soles is not present in a simply dissolved state, 
but that the fibrin particles under the influence of electrolytes are 
expanded by water. That in other words the fibrin-particles in the alkali- 
and the acidhydrosoles contain so to say a charge of an electrolyte 
(alkali, acid) and water. Such an amicroscopical system: fibrin- 
substance—electrolyte—water [ have denoted by the name of ‘mi- 
cell”. Taking the word micell in this sense, the optically empty 
fibrin-soles may be looked upon as micellular solutions. This view 
also makes it clear why fibrin may be secreted in one case as a 
real jelly, in another as a system of fibres, which facts we could 
establish again at the gel-formation under the influence of an electric 
current. In the first instance we have to deal with an agglutination 
of the fibrin micells still in a somewhat swollen state (by an im- 
perfect loss of the electrolyte and consequently of the water in 
them),- resulting in a real jelly. The second instance relates to an 
agelutination of fibrin particles which are no longer swollen; the 
micells have more completely lost their electrolyte and consequently 
their water, whilst the unswollen discharged micells (fibrin-particles) 
owing to a property peculiar to fibrin, agglutinate lengthwise into 
needles and then into fibres (micellular-erystallization process). From 
a more general point of view it is a remarkable fact that the fibrin- 
secretion under the influence of an electric current is entirely an- 
alogous to. that which is occasioned by weak acid or alkali, by 
neutral salt solutions, by bloodserum ete. I shall, however, not 
dwell at present on the further significance of this fact. 
Groningen, Oétober 1916. Physiological Laboratory. 
