AGGLUTINATION OF RED BLOOD CELLS. 319 



There is, to be sure, one conclusion in the theory of Mangin and 

 Henri which seems experimentally verified, but as we shall see 

 the verification is only apparent and their conclusion incorrect. 

 This is the subject in point. If it is true that the salts within 

 corpuscles have something to do with flocculating colloids and sus- 

 pensions about the corpuscles, on extracting the salts from these 

 corpuscles by laking, we should obtain a fluid L, which, when the 

 stromata are removed, will prevent the agglutination of fresh cor- 

 puscles by a suspended precipitate. This in particular would be 

 true if the suspension were placed in fluid L before the fresh cor- 

 puscles were, thus allowing it to be flocculated by the corpuscular 

 salts present in the fluid. We proceed, then, by laking blood cor- 

 puscles with distilled water and subsequently adding enough sodium 

 chlorid to restore its tonicity to that of physiological salt solution, 

 and we then separate the stromata by centrifugalization and 

 decant the supernatant fluid, which contains all the substances 

 that the corpuscles liberated. To a given amount of this fluid we 

 add a known quantity of CaFl 2 , of barium sulphate or of colloidal 

 ferric hydroxide and, after a short period, we add to each tube a 

 small amount of fresh washed corpuscles. No agglutination occurs. 

 The laked fluid, then, deprived of stromata completely prevents 

 the agglutination of other corpuscles either by suspensions or by 

 ferric hydrate. 



At first sight this fact agrees very well with Mangin and Henri's 

 ideas, but it is not, however, explicable as we see it by their theory. 

 If the inhibiting effect of this fluid is in reality due to diffused 

 intracorpuscular salts, it must be due to the precipitation of the 

 colloids or suspensions by these salts, which precipitation in this 

 case would occur without the subsequent addition of corpuscles. 

 We find, however, no precipitation of colloids or suspensions by 

 this laked fluid; the reverse indeed is found. Salt solution rapidly 

 flocculates CaFl 2 and ferric hydrate and allows barium sulphate to 

 sediment rather quickly, but fluid L, deprived of stromata, keeps 

 these substances in suspension; even the ferric hydrate, which is 

 so susceptible to the presence of salts. Since the electrolytes in 



of corpuscles by colloids; they find that stromata are also agglutinable by these 

 substances. Under such conditions we see no reason for attributing an active 

 function to the corpuscular salts, as do these authors. 



