CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF BLOOD-PLASMA. 449 



it is stated that extirpation of the liver in the dog, after establishing 

 an Eck fistula, is followed by a rapid disappearance of the fibrino- 

 gen of the blood.* In phosphorus poisoning, and particularly in 

 chloroform poisoning, which is attended by an extensive necrosis 

 of the central portions of the liver lobules, the amount of fibrinogen 

 in the blood is rapidly reduced, t and simultaneously, as we should 

 expect, the blood loses more or less completely its power of clotting. 

 Finally it has been noted that if the blood of a dog is withdrawn 

 in separate portions, defibrinated and reinjected into the circula- 

 tion, the missing fibrinogen is quickly regenerated in a normal 

 animal, while in one with its liver thrown out of function this re- 

 generation does not take place. t 



The following table § gives some results of analyses of blood 

 which indicate the average amounts of the different proteins 

 in the blood-plasma of several animals. The figures give the weight 

 of the protein iu grams for 100 c.c. of plasma. 



Serum- 

 Total Proteins. Albumin. Paraglobulin. Fibrinogen. 



Man 7.26 4.01 2.83 0.42 



Dog 6.03 3.17 2.26 0.60 



Sheep 7.29 3.83 3.00 0.46 



Horse 8.04 2.80 4.79 0.45 



Pig 8.05 4.42 2.98 0.65 



Other Proteins of the Blood-serum or Blood-plasma. — From time to time 

 other protein bodies have been described in the serum or plasma of the bloo.d. 

 In the serum after coagulation Hammarsten has obtained a globulin body, 

 fibrin-globulin, which he supposes may be split off from the fibrinogen dur- 

 ing the act of clotting. Faust describes an albuminoid substance, glutdin, 

 which is present in the blood and is usually precipitated together with the 

 paraglobulin. A number of observers have noted the existence in blood 

 of a protein not coagulated by heat. By some authors this has been de- 

 scribed as a peptone or an albumose (Langstein), by others as an ovomucoid 

 (Zanetti), and by others still (Chabrie) as a peculiar protein for which the 

 name albumon has been proposed. By others still, this non-coagulable pro- 

 tein obtained from serum or plasma has been explained as an artificial 

 product arising from the globulins of the blood during the process of remov- 

 ing the coagulable proteins by heating. So, too, nucleoprotein substances 

 have been described in the blood-serum by several observers. It is quite 

 possible, however, that the substance described as nucleoprotein is in reality a 

 mixture or combination of lecithin and protein. Most of the protein when 

 precipitated from the blood carries down with it some lecithin, and will there- 

 fore show a reaction for phosphorus. It can be shown that the phosphorus 

 present is, in most cases at least, removable by boiUng with alcohol, and there 

 is at present no entirely satisfactory proof that nucleoprotein exists in the 

 blood. 



Coagulation of Blood. — One of the most striking properties of 

 blood is its power of clotting or coagulating shortly after it escapes 



* See Doyon, "C. r. Soc. Biol.," 56, 612, 1904, and Nolf, "Arch, internat 

 de physiol.,"3, 1, 1905; "Archivio di Fisiologia," 7, 1909. 



t Whipple, "Journal of Exp. Medicine," 13, 136, 1911, and 15, 246, 1912. 

 X Meek, "American Journal of Physiology," 30 161, 1912. 

 § Lewinski, "Pfluger's Archiv," 100, 611, 1903. 

 29 



