134 THE BLOOD. 



The blood to be analyzed is taken from the arm, and re- 

 ceived into two carefully weighed vessels. The quantity in 

 each vessel may be from two to four ounces. One of the 

 specimens is immediately whipped with a small bundle of 

 broom-corn, previously moistened and weighed, so as to col- 

 lect the fibrin ; and after the fibrin is completely coagulated, 

 the whole is carefhlly weighed, deducting the weights of the 

 vessel and broom-corn, which gives the weight of the specimen 

 of blood used. The other specimen is set aside to coagulate. 



The first specimen is used in the estimation of the fibrin 

 and corpuscles ; the second is set aside to coagulate, and is 

 used to estimate the albumen. It is important to cover the 

 vessels as soon as the blood is drawn, for, as has been demon- 

 strated by Becquerel and Rodier, blood exposed to the air 

 loses weight rapidly by evaporation. 1 



We now pass the first specimen of blood through a fine 

 sieve to collect any fibrin that may not have become attached 

 to the wisp, strip the fibrin from the wisp, and wash it under 

 a stream of water. This may be done very rapidly if we 

 cause the water to flow through a small strainer, by which it 

 is broken up into a number of little streams, and knead the 

 fibrin with the fingers, doing this over a sieve so as to catch 

 any particles that may become detached. In this way it 

 may be freed from the corpuscles in five or ten minutes. The 

 fibrin is then freed from most of the adherent moisture by 

 bibulous paper, and weighed as soon as possible. By the 

 following formula we estimate the proportion per 1,000 parts 

 of blood: 



Weight of blood used : Weight of fibrin : : 1,000 : Fi- 

 brin per 1,000. 



The next step is to estimate the corpuscles. For this pur- 

 pose a portion of the defibrinated blood, which is carefully 



JBody, with a New Method for their Estimation in the Blood, American Journal 

 of the Medical Sciences, October, 1863. 

 1 Op. cit., p. 31. 



