320 TRANSUDATIONS. 



frequently occurs in the older transudations. It seldom possesses 

 the property, ascribed by Giiterbock to pyin, of being soluble in 

 acetic acid, but when we succeed in separating it from the albumen 

 which is simultaneously precipitated by the acetic acid, and other- 

 wise purifying it, it exhibits such a different composition, that we 

 cannot even decide from the analysis whether or not it is a pro- 

 duct of the oxidation of protein. This substance does not occur in 

 fresh transudations. 



The extractive matters are generally present in larger quantities 

 in the transudations than in the corresponding intercellular fluid or 

 serum of the blood. They are commonly more numerous in the 

 older stagnating fluids than in those which have been more re- 

 cently separated, and are relatively less considerable in the fibrinous 

 than the serous transudations ; whilst in the serum of the normal 

 blood the ratio of the albumen (without fat) to the extractive 

 matters is as 100 to 5, it is as 100 to 8 or even to 16 in fresh 

 fibrinous transudations, and in fresh serous transudations it is as 

 100 to 12 or even to 30, and in the older serous ones, as 100 to 42, 

 or even to 86. From hence we might conclude that these substances 

 transude from the blood into the cavities in larger quantities than 

 the albumen, and this is proved to be the case by the analyses of 

 normal transudations, as for instance, of the fluid within the peri- 

 cardium, the cerebral and spinal fluids, the liquor amnii, the tears, 

 and the aqueous humor, in which the ratio rises to 100 : 300; 

 indeed the quantity of albumen may be so much diminished as 

 scarcely to be quantitatively determinable, although its presence 

 may be qualitatively proved by the ordinary tests for the albumi- 

 nates, as for instance, by Millon's (see vol. i., p. 327). In general, 

 however, the extractive matters present great variations in quantity^ 

 partly because they are somewhat increased by the chemical treat- 

 ment employed for the albuminates, and partly because they stand 

 in very various relations to the quantity of water transuded, either 

 owing to the constitution of the blood, or to the peculiar structure 

 of different systems of capillaries. Then, too, it must be borne in 

 mind, that in the older originally fibrinous transudations, in which 

 morphological formations have been developed, one portion of the 

 albumen passes into these, whilst another part is converted into 

 extractive substances, which may therefore be both relatively and 

 absolutely augmented in the analysis. Hence it would be super- 

 fluous to give the various quantities of extractive matters assigned 

 by our analyses to these transudations. 



Scherer found in a dropsical ovarian fluid a " modification of 



