318 TRANSUDATIONS. 



extremely with the varying physical and chemical characters of the 

 blood. 



The capillaries also appear to vary in their capacity for 

 transudation in different stages of the development of serous 

 membranes ; thus, for instance, according to Vogt and Scherer,* 

 the liquor amnii in the human subject contains more albumen and 

 more solid constituents generally during the early than in the last 

 stages of pregnancy. Vogt found l'077o f albumen in the fourth 

 month, and O667# after the sixth month ; Scherer found 0'767J 

 in the fifth month, and only 0'082-g- after the beginning of the 

 ninth month; Mack found 0*370 and 0*264^ in the liquor amnii at 

 the full time. Three analyses of the liquor amnii, which were 

 conducted by myself, coincide most nearly with those of Mack. 



From the simple application of the few analyses which have 

 hitherto been made, we may, by induction, establish the propo- 

 sition, that the transudation will be richer in albumen in proportion 

 to the slowness with which the blood passes through the capillaries. 

 When the circulation is obstructed in the abdominal veins by the 

 presence of large tumours, we find that the transudations contain a 

 larger amount of albumen than in those cases in which the circula- 

 tion of the blood in the veins is retarded by lesser mechanical obstruc- 

 tions, such as hepatic disturbances accompanied with contraction 

 of the parenchyma of the liver, &c. When the disturbance in the 

 circulation of the blood in one capillary system is so considerable, 

 as is the case in inflammatory hypersemia, the transudation will be 

 far richer in albumen ; and hence we find that all the fibrinous 

 transudations are on an average far richer in albumen than the 

 so-called serous ones. In the fluid of acute hydrocephalus we find, 

 that while there is an absence of fibrin, there is less albumen than 

 in many other serous transudations, but always a larger quantity 

 than in chronic hydrocephalus, &c. 



The constitution of the blood forms a third condition, which 

 exerts an influence on the quantity of albumen, as well as on the 

 general composition of the transudations ; for the poorer the blood is 

 in albumen, the less of this substance will be present in the transuda- 

 tion. C. Schmidt has, however, decisively shown, with "reference 

 to the dropsical accumulations in B right's disease, where the blood 

 is constantly rendered poor in albumen from the quantity of this 

 substance carried off by the urine, that this diminution, when 

 compared with the transudations in dropsy, arises from other 

 causes. In the transudation dependent on the mechanical obstruc- 

 * ZeitsclH-. f. vvisseuschaftl. Zoologie. Bd. 1, S, 8892. 



