FIBRIN. 363 



lated fibrin is soluble in a solution of this salt. According to 

 Scherer, the fibrin of inflammatory blood appears to be insoluble 

 in this saline solution ; how then can a solution of nitre prevent 

 the augmentation of fibrin in inflammatory blood through a 

 solvent power which, in relation to this inflammatory fibrin, it 

 actually does not possess ? 



There would be much more probability in the assumption that 

 a solution of nitre hindered the coagulation of highly fibrinous blood, 

 or that it redissolved already coagulated fibrin. The most simple 

 arithmetical example will illustrate this view. Scherer asserts that 

 1 part of nitre is required to dissolve 1'5 parts of fibrin; as- 

 suming that the quantity of the blood amounts to twenty pounds, 

 and that it contains only 0'3f of fibrin, the whole amount of fibrin 

 would be not less than 300 grains, and to dissolve this quantity 

 200 grains of nitre should be at once taken ; physicians, however, 

 usually prescribe about 10 grains every two hours, so that in 24 

 hours 100 or 120 grains are at most all that is taken to act upon 

 the fibrin. But the amount of nitre in the blood can never rise 

 even to this insufficient height, partly because the salt becomes 

 distributed from the blood-vessels into the juices of the body 

 generally ; and partly because it is much too rapidly carried off by 

 the urine to admit of its accumulating in great quantity in the 

 blood. Even if it were possible to prove that nitre possesses this 

 power, it would be very singular and inexplicable why we never 

 class amongst the special antiphlogistic medicines other salts, as, 

 for instance, the alkaline carbonates, which possess a much greater 

 power of dissolving fibrin, and of preventing its coagulation. 



In this pharmacological digression, we cannot help remarking 

 that if inflammation were actually a process of oxidation or com- 

 bustion, it is very strange that we have not found the alkaline 

 salts of the vegetable acids, the amylacea, and the fats, to be the 

 most efficient antiphlogistics. It is true that we attack severe in- 

 flammation with tartar emetic, but even when given according to 

 Rasori's method, it communicates to the blood so little combustible 

 material as to be inappreciable, especially when combined with an 

 antiphlogistic diet. If inflammation were a process of combustion, 

 the antiphlogistic diet must be exactly the reverse of that which 

 we understand by the term. Moreover, direct experiments on 

 patients, to whom large doses of acetate and tartrate of potash 

 might safely be administered, have proved that these salts exert no 

 action either of a beneficial or of an injurious character, on the 

 inflammatory process. Even the most zealous adherents of the 



