STROMA OF THE BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. 267 



accelerated by centrifugal force, and the liquid which separates therefrom 

 is very carefully treated with a 1 per cent solution of KHSO 4 until it is 

 about as dense as the original blood. The separated stromata are col- 

 lected on a filter and quickly washed. PASCUCCI/ on the contrary, treats 

 the mass of corpuscles with 15-20 vols. of a one-fifth saturated ammonium- 

 sulphate solution, allows the corpuscles to settle, siphons off the fluid, 

 repeatedly centrifuges, allows the residue to dry quickly (on porcelain 

 plates) at the ordinary temperature, and then washes with water until 

 the blood-pigments and the other soluble bodies are dissolved out. 



WOOLDRIDGE found as constituents of the stromata lecithin, choles- 

 terin, nucleoalbumin, and a globulin which, according to HALLIBURTON, 

 is probably a nucleoproteid which he calls cell-globulin. No nuclein 

 substances or seralbumin or proteoses could be detected by HALLIBUR- 

 TON and FRIEND. According to PASCUCCI, the stromata (from horse- 

 blood) consists of one-third cholesterin and lecithin (besides a little eere- 

 broside), and two-thirds protein substances and mineral bodies. The 

 nucleated red blood-corpuscles of the bird contain, according to PLOSZ 

 and HoppE-SEYLER, 2 a protein (nucleoprotein) which swells to a slimy 

 mass in a 10 per cent common salt solution, and which seems to be closely 

 related to the hyaline substance (hyaline substance of ROVIDA, see page 295) 

 occurring in the lymph-cells. In the mass extracted by alcohol from the 

 blood-corpuscles of the hen, ACKERMANN found 3.93 per cent phosphorus 

 and 17.2 per cent nitrogen, which on calculation gave 42.10 per cent nucleic 

 acid and 57.82 per cent histone. PIETTRE and VILA S found in the stromata 

 0.3 per cent phosphorus in the horse and 2.3-2.6 per cent in birds (ducks 

 and hens) calculated on the ash-free substance. They found the quantity 

 of nitrogen to be 11.7 and 13.21 per cent for the horse and dog respectively. 

 The non-nucleated red blood-corpuscles are, as a rule, very poor in protein, 

 but are rich in hemoglobin; the nucleated corpuscles are richer in protein 

 and poorer in haemoglobin than the non-nucleated. Several enzymes 

 probably also occur as constituents of the stromata and among these 

 occurs the proteolytic enzyme studied by ABDERHALDEN and collaborators. 4 

 It is difficult to decide in many cases whether the enzymes found in the 

 blood belong to the fluid or to the various kinds of form-elements. 



A gelatinous, fibrin-like protein body may be obtained from the red 

 blood-corpuscles under certain circumstances. This fibrin-like mass has 

 been observed on freezing and then thawing the sediment of the blood- 

 corpuscles, or on discharging the spark from a large Leyden jar through 



1 Hofmeister's Beit rage, 6. 



2 Wooldridge, Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 1881, 387; Halliburton and Friend, 

 Journal of Physiol., 10; Halliburton, ibid., 18; Plosz, Hoppe-Seyler's Med. chem. 

 Untersuch., 510. 



3 Ackermann, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 43; Piettre and Vila, Compt. Rend., 143. 



4 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 51, 53 and 55. 



