SALTS. 327 



the intercellular fluid ; while the average amount of mineral sub- 

 stances in the latter is about O'S 5, we usually find in fibrinous 

 transudations from 0'73 to 0'82^ of salts. In the true dropsical 

 accumulations the proportion of the salts is, however, very 

 different ; such fluids contain an amount of salts often exceeding 

 that which is found in normal blood^ serum, the number sometimes 

 rising to 0'86, or even to 0*95^ ; here, however, the general rule 

 also holds good, that the transudation contains rather less salts 

 than the corresponding liquor sanguinis ; for in dropsy the blood 

 is always rich in salts, as we have already seen in page 252. In 

 proportion to the richness of the dropsical blood, so much the 

 richer in salts is the transudation ; the latter, however, always 

 contains a fraction less salts than the former. This proposition 

 can only be established by a careful comparison of all the analyses 

 which we at present possess ; but the careful investigations of 

 Schmidt have rendered it certain that it may be regarded as a law 

 which may be expressed by a general formula. Schmidt has, 

 however, further shown that this rule presents an exception when, 

 simultaneously with the transudation in the interior of the body, 

 there is an elimination of albumen externally, that is to say, when 

 albuminuria is at the same time present : in that case, a larger 

 quantity of salts, and far less albumen, transude through the 

 capillaries of the peritoneum into its cavity than would have been 

 the case if there were no external loss of albumen ; hence in such 

 cases the number representing the mineral salts often equals, and 

 may even exceed, that of the organic matters. 



A similar condition to that which we have just noticed may 

 occur with regard to the amount of salts in the liquor anmii : in 

 the fifth month of pregnancy we find, according to Scherer, 0'925^ 

 of salts with 0*767^ of albumen ; the albumen is here not lost, but 

 is otherwise applied, and hence the considerable and extraordinary 

 augmentation of the salts in the transudation of the amnion : 

 towards the end of pregnancy the ratio of the albumen to the salts 

 is still more unfavourable ; in these cases there has been found only 

 O37 of albumen with 0'92 of salts, and Scherer found actually 

 only 0'0&2- of the former with 0'706 J of the latter. 



The relative proportion of the salts in the transudations through 

 the intestinal capillaries in cholera, or in diarrhoea after drastic pur- 

 gatives, is altogether peculiar ; in these transudations the quantity 

 of the salts is five, or even seven times as great as that of the 

 albumen ; at the same time they are richer in water than those of 

 any other kind ; there is hera no direct proportion between the 



