COAGULATION OF THE BLOOD. 301 



and the diseased walls of the vessel also act as such that gives the 

 impulse toward coagulation, while the lack of adhesion prevents the 

 blood from coagulating. BORDET and GENGOU 1 have also shown that 

 the plasma obtained by centrifuging blood collected in a paraffined 

 vessel, and perfectly free from form-elements, can be kept without coagulat- 

 hig in a paraffined vessel, and that it does coagulate on being transferred 

 to an unparaffined vessel. The adhesion of the plasma to a foreign 

 body may also, in the absence of form-elements, give the impulse to coagu- 

 lation. That this adhesion of the form-elements is of great importance 

 cannot be denied and is also generally accepted. By this adhesion the 

 form-elements undergo certain changes which seem to stand in a certain 

 relation to the coagulation of the blood. 



The views in regard to these changes are. unfortunately, very diver- 

 gent. According to ALEX. SCHMIDT 2 and the Dorpat school an 

 abundant destruction of the leucocytes, especially polynuclear leucocytes, 

 takes place in coagulation, and important constituents for the coagula- 

 tion of the fibrin pass into the plasma. A direct relation between the 

 destruction of leucocytes and coagulation is denied by many investigators, 

 while according to other experimenters the essential factor is not a 

 destruction of the leucocytes, but an elimination of constituents from 

 the cells into the plasma. This process is called plasmoschisis by Lowrr. 3 

 The passage of cell constituents into the plasma before coagulation must 

 not necessarily be considered as a phenomenon of death, as it may just 

 as well be a secretory process ( ARTHUS, MORAWITZ, DASTRE 4 ) . Great 

 importance has also been ascribed to the blood-plates in coagulation, as 

 certain investigators (BIZZOZERO, LILIENFELD, SCHWALBE, MORAWITZ, 

 BURKER) found that they cause or accelerate coagulation, while others 

 (PETRONB) on the contrary find a retarding action 5 . 



WOOLDRIDGE 8 takes a very peculiar position in regard to this question : he 

 considers the form-elements as only of secondary importance in coagulation. 

 As he has found, a peptone-plasma which has been freed from all form-con- 



1 Annal. de 1' Institute Pasteur, 17. 



2 Pfluger's Arch., 11. The works of Alex. Schmidt are found in Arch. f. Anat. 

 und Physiol., 1861, 1862; Pfluger's Arch., 6, 9, 11, 13. See especially Alex. Schmidt, 

 Zur Blutlehre (Leipzig, 1892), which also gives the work of his pupils, and Weitere 

 Beitrage zur Blutlehre, 1895. 



3 Wien. Sitzungsber., 89 and 90, and Prager med. Wochenschr., 1889, referred 

 to in Centralbl. f. d. med. Wissensi., 28, 265. 



4 Morawitz, Hofmeister's Beitrage, 5; Arthus, Compt. rend. soc. biolog., 55; Dastre, 

 ibid., 55. 



5 See foot-note 1, p. 296. Also Schwalbe, Unters. z. Blutgerinnung, etc., Braun- 

 schweig, 1900; Morawitz, Deutsch. Arch. f. klin. Med., 79, and Hofmeister's Beitrage, 

 4 and 5; Biirker, Pfluger's Arch., 102, and Centralbl. f. Physiol., 21; Petrone, Maly's 

 Jahresber., 31, p. 170. 



6 Die Gerinnung des Blutes (published by M. v. Frey, Leipzig, 1891). 



