FATTY MATTERS IX THE BLOOD. 8 1 



to which he considers the alkaline reaction of the blood to 

 be due, and solutions of which can dissolve large quantities 

 of albumen and phosphate of lime. 



The proportion of Jibrin in healthy blood may vary be- 

 tween 2 and 3 parts in IOOO. In some diseases, such as 

 typhus, and others of low type, it may be as little as I '034 ; 

 in other diseases, it is said, it may be increased to as much 

 as 7*528 parts in IOOO. But, in estimating the quantity 

 of fibrin, chemists have not taken account of the white 

 corpuscles of the blood. These cannot, by any mode of 

 analysis yet invented, be separated from the fibrin of 

 mammalian blood : their composition is unknown, but 

 their weight is always included in the estimate of the 

 fibrin. In health, they may, perhaps, add too little to its 

 weight to merit consideration, but in many diseases, espe- 

 cially in inflammatory and other blood diseases in which 

 the fibrin is said to be increased, these corpuscles become 

 so numerous that a large proportion of the supposed 

 increase of the fibrin must be due to their being weighed 

 with it. On this account all the statements respecting the 

 increase of fibrin in certain diseases need revision. 



The enumeration of the fatty matters of the blood makes 

 it probable that most of those which are found in the 

 tissues or secretions exist also ready-formed in the blood ; 

 for it contains the cholesterin of the bile, the cerebrin 

 and phosphorised fat of the brain, and the ordinary saponi- 

 fiable fats, stearin, olein, and palmatin. A volatile fatty 

 acid is that on which the odour of the blood mainly de- 

 pends; and it is supposed that when sulphuric acid is 

 added (see p. 57), it evolves the odour by combining 

 with the base with which, naturally, this acid is neutra- 

 lized. According to Lehmann, much of the fatty matter of 

 the blood is accumulated in the red corpuscles. 



These fatty matters are subject to much variation in 

 quantity, being commonly increased after every meal in 

 which fat, or starch, or saccharine substances have been 



