THE CIRCULATING LIQUIDS OF THE BODY 45 



passes away, till after some hours the original power of coagulation is 

 restored (p. 189). The liver is known to be intimately concerned in 

 the production of this remarkable result, for if the circulation through 

 it be interrupted, the injection of proteose is ineffective. Further, if 

 a solution of proteose is artificially circulated through an excised 

 liver, a substance is formed which is capable of suspending the 

 coagulation of blood outside of the body, a property which proteoses 

 themselves do not possess. It is not believed that the proteose is 

 actually changed into this anticoagulant substance, but rather that 

 the liver cells produce it as a * reaction ' to the presence of the foreign 

 substance, being perhaps stimulated in some way by the circulating 

 proteose. Under certain conditions, some of which are known and 

 others not, the injection even of one or other of the purified proteoses 

 causes not retardation, but hastening, of coagulation ; and if this has 

 been the result of a first injection, a second is equally unsuccessful. 

 It is possible that by an effort of the organism to restore the normal 

 coagulability of the blood, on which its very existence depends, a 

 second substance with fibrinoplastic powers is produced, and that 

 the result of an injection of proteose is determined by the relative 

 amount of coagulant and anticoagulant secreted in a given time. On 

 the other hand, pure hemipeptone always retards, and pure antipeptone 

 (p. 308) always favours coagulation (Thompson). 



FIG. 6. DIAGRAM SHOWING RELATIVE QUANTITY OF SOLIDS AND WATER 

 IN RED CORPUSCLES AND PLASMA. 



The Chemical Composition of Blood. 



The serum of coagulated blood represents the plasma 

 minus fibrinogen (or its thrombosin element) ; the clot repre- 

 sents the corpuscles plus fibrin. Thus : 



Plasma Fibrin(ogen)=Serum. 

 Corpuscles-^- Fibrin = Clot. 

 Plasma4-Corpuscles= Serum + Clot = Blood. 



Bulky as the clot is, the quantity of fibrin is trifling (*2 to 

 4 per cent, in human blood). The plasma contains about 

 10 per cent, of solids, the red corpuscles about 40 per cent., 

 the entire blood about 20 per cent. 



Serum contains 8 to 9 per cent, of proteids, about '8 per 

 cent, of inorganic salts, and small quantities of neutral fats, 

 urea, kreatin, grape-sugar, lactic acid, and other substances. 

 The proteids are serum- albumin and serum- globulin. In the 

 rabbit the former, in the horse the latter, is the more 

 abundant ; in man they exist in not far from equal amount. 



