EXCITANT IN CANCER PLASMA 



movements in white blood-cells; but still it was an 

 excitation, and for all we know, although they had not 

 yet been seen, the excitation might produce other 

 results as well. This clue, however, arising from micro- 

 scopical experimentation and from a clinical observation, 

 has proved to be of great importance, and has led by a 

 singular chain of events to the knowledge that cell- 

 division in the body results from the presence of specific 

 agents, the action of which becomes remarkably aug- 

 mented if the cells are in a condition of excitation 

 resulting from the presence of an alkaloid. 



This cancer research became instituted in this way, 

 and the first step undertaken in connection with it 

 was to test the blood of cancer patients experimentally 

 in order to find out whether it, or other of the body 

 fluids, contained any substance which would, like the 

 alkaloid, excite exaggerated movements in leucocytes. 



Ten cases of well-marked carcinoma were examined 

 in the following way: A certain quantity of the 

 patient's blood was mixed in a capillary tube with 

 an equal volume of citrate solution. The tube was 

 then centrifugalised and the corpuscles removed. To 

 the remaining plasma a certain quantity of fresh blood 

 taken from a healthy person (usually one of ourselves) 

 was added and thoroughly mixed. The sealed tube 

 containing the mixture was then placed in the revolving 

 apparatus in the incubator and kept at 37 C. for half 

 an hour, at the end of which time a drop of it was 

 examined at 20 C. upon a slide under a cover-glass. 

 Blood plasmata taken from fifty healthy people, or from 

 people suffering from diseases other than cancer, were 



