LOCAL FORMATION OF FIBRINE. 199 



and coagulating fluids, and that in which the exudation 

 is coagulable, but not coagulating, certainly points to 

 peculiarities in the local irritation. 



I do not think therefore that we are entitled to con- 

 clude that in a person who has an excess of fibrine in his 

 blood, there is on that account also a greater tendency to 

 fibrinous transudation ; on the contrary, I should rather 

 expect that in a patient who produces at a certain point 

 a large quantity of fibrine-forniing substance, much of 

 it would pass from that point into the lymph and finally 

 into the blood. The exudation may therefore in such 

 cases be regarded as the surplus of the fibrine formed in 

 loco, for the removal of which the lymphatic circulation 

 did not suffice. As long as the current of lymph does 

 suffice, all the foreign matters which are formed in the 

 irritated part are conveyed into the blood ; but, as soon 

 as the local production becomes excessive, the products 

 accumulate, and in addition to the hyperinosis, a local 

 accumulation of fibrinous exudation will also take place. 

 On account of the shortness of the time which is allotted 

 to us, we cannot follow up this subject in its whole 

 extent, but still I hope that you will at least completely 

 grasp the fundamental idea which has guided me. Here, 

 too, we have another example of that dependence of a 

 dyscrasia upon a local disease to which I but a short 

 time ago called your attention as being the most impor- 

 tant result of all our investigations concerning the blood. 



Now it is a very remarkable fact, and one which adds 

 weight to this very view of mine, that it is very rarely 

 that a considerable increase of fibrine takes place without 

 a simultaneous increase in the colourless blood-corpuscles, 

 and that therefore the two essential constituents which 

 we find in the lymph we again meet with in the blood. 

 In every case of hyperinosis we may rely upon discover- 

 ing an increase in the colourless corpuscles, or, in other 



