CONCL USIONS RE GAR DING CO A G ULA TION. 1 8 1 
5. That the micleo-proteid (prothrombin) appears in the plasma of 
circulating blood under certain conditions, being in .-ill probability shed 
out from the white corpuscles and blood platelets, or in some cases even 
from the red corpuscles; and that when shed out under these conditions 
from the corpuscles, or when artificially injected into the vessels, it 
tends at once to interact with the lime salts of the plasma and to 
form fibrin ferment (thrombin), intravascular coagulation being the 
result. 
6. That, under other conditions, either the shedding out of nucleo- 
proteid from the corpuscles, or its interaction with the lime salts of the 
plasma, may be alti igether prevented and the blood rendered incoagulable, 
unless nucleo-proteid be artificially added, or unless a modification of 
the conditions is introduced which will permit of the interaction of 
the nucleo-proteid with lime to form ferment. 
7. That the nucleo-proteid (prothrombin) is incompetent, in the 
entire absence of lime salts, to promote the transformation of 
fibrinogen into fibrin; but, as a result of its interaction with lime 
salts, it becomes transformed into a ferment (thrombin), which, 
under suitable conditions of temperature and the like, produces 
fibrin. 
8. That either the place of nucleo-proteid in coagulation may 
be taken by certain all minuses, such as those found in snake venom, 
and by certain artificial colloidal substances, such as those prepared 
by Grimaux, or that such substances may act by setting free nucleo- 
proteid from the leucocytes and other elements in the blood, or 
from the cells of the blood vessels, and thus indirectly promote 
coagulation. 
If the former supposition is the correct one, in all probability these three 
substances (nucleo-proteid, snake venom, albumose, and colloid of Grimaux) 
contain the same active molecular group. 1 
Lymph, Chyle, Serous Fluids, Cerebko-Spinal Fluid, Synovia. 
Lymph, which is obtainable from the lymphatic vessels of the limbs, 
from the thoracic duct, and from the lacteals in the intervals of absorp- 
tion of digestive products, or from the serous cavities — although only 
occurring normally in sufficient amount for purposes of analysis and 
experiment in the pericardial cavity — resembles generally in the char- 
acter of its constituents, but not in their relative amount, the plasma of 
the blood. Nor are the proportions of its constituents so constant as are 
those of blood plasma, for there is reason to believe that the lymph from 
different organs presents very considerable differences in their relative 
amounts. 
Lymph has generally been obtained for analysis from accidental 
lymphatic fistulse in man, from experimental fistulte in large animals, 
such as the horse, or from the thoracic duct of fasting animals (dog). 
The amount flowing along the thoracic duct is about 64 c.c. per kilog. 
body weight per diem. 2 
1 Halliburton and Pickering, op. tit. 
2 R. Heidenhain, Arch. f. d. yes. Physiol., Bonn, 1S91, Bd. xlix. S. 216; Noel Patou, 
Joum. Physiol., Cambridge and Loudon, 1890, vol. xl. p. 109. 
