THEIR AMOUNT OF ALBUMEN. 317 



while others are opposed to the law which Schmidt has attempted 

 to establish, I will merely give a few numbers obtained by other 

 chemists ; in an effusion within the cerebral ventricles Berzelius* 

 found 0'166, Mulder 0'055, and Tennant 0'303^ of albumen; 

 in a transudation within the peritoneum, v. Bibraf found 2*9 g-, 

 Vogelt 3'3 in one case and only 0'09Jf in another, Dublanc (like 

 v. Bibra) 2-9%, Marchand 0'238, and Simon 0'8 4^ of albumen ;in 

 a case of hydrocele the last-named chemist found 4'83-g- and v. Bibra 

 4'8-g-, and in cedema of the feet Simon found 0'70-g- of albumen 



If we compare the results of different analysts, it might seem 

 at first sight that they are opposed to Schmidt's postulate, that 

 the transudation of each individual group of capillaries has a 

 special and a constant composition ; but a closer examination of 

 the relations accompanying these transudations renders it tolerably 

 evident that this proposition is unquestionably established, but that, 

 like all natural laws, it is modified in its results or actions by other 

 valid laws, and that thus its direct recognition is not very obvious. 

 We can> therefore, only demonstrate this proposition when we 

 compare with one another the simultaneous transudations of 

 different capillary groups under identical conditions. We then 

 certainly find that the relative quantity of albumen is tolerably 

 equal in the different transudations, but we must not hence con- 

 clude, as Schmidt seems inclined to assume, that the quantity of 

 albumen in the transudation of each group of capillaries is, under 

 all conditions, represented by a definite number ; for different con- 

 ditions may come into play, which exert an influence on the com- 

 position of the transudation. The transudation is not the result 

 of merely a single factor ; it depends not only on the thickness or 

 the delicacy of the capillaries, but on the rapidity of the current of 

 blood, and on the constitution of the blood itself. Even if there 

 were not sufficient positive facts to establish the position that the 

 composition of the transudation from the same capillary system 

 varies under different conditions, we might a priori conclude that, 

 on the one hand, when the current of blood in the capillaries is 

 very slow, and there is great distension of their walls, the compo- 

 sition of the transudation will be very different from what it would 

 have been under opposite conditions, and that, on the other hand, 

 its composition, and consequently its amount of albumen, will vary 



* Lehrb. d. Ch. Bd. 9, S. 198. 



t Chem. Untersuch. verschied. Eiterarten, S. 160 u. 170. 



+ Path. Anat. Th. 1, S. 16 [or English translation, p. 37.] 



Med. Chem. J3d. 2, S. 582 [or English translation, vol. ii. p. 493.] 



