220 COLLOIDS IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 



muscles, most of all, are able to accumulate large quantities of water. 

 In ENGEL'S experiment they took up 2/3 of the water supplied. 



If water is supplied to the organism, the blood, on account of its 

 low swelling range, gives off the excess chiefly to the musses and 

 skin; it parts with some to the glands, chiefly the kidneys. On this 

 account, saline infusions after a severe loss of blood have usually 

 only a temporary effect. 1 Muscles and skin behave like a reservoir, 

 the blood, like a rigid pipe system, from which, if the pressure is 

 sufficient, excess of water constantly flows through a small vent. In 

 carrying out this wise arrangement, the organism utilizes the various 

 swelling ranges of the organ colloids. 



Though I have used the above picture of a rigid pipe system for 

 the blood, it is not strictly accurate, for the blood has a small 

 swelling range of its own, as we see from ENGEL'S table. This may 

 be attributed to the fibrinogen, as we learn from the following 

 facts. The required data I have taken from E. ABDERHALDEN 

 (pp. 592-593).* 1 



The water content of various animals is: 



Per mil 



" In the entire blood 749-824 



Serum 902-92G 



Blood corpuscles ,..., 604-633 



From this we see that when the water content of serum increases 

 2.6 per cent (from the minimum), it reaches its maximum, and the 

 blood corpuscles reach their maximum with an increase of 5 per 

 cent. The entire blood on the contrary has a swelling range of 10 

 per cent. There must therefore be something in the blood that 

 swells especially well and the only possible substance is the fibrinogen. 



Let us compare the maximal and minimal content of water dis- 

 tributed between serum, blood corpuscles, and the whole blood in the 

 identical animals. 



Max. = maximum water content among the various species of 

 animals. 



Min. = minimum water content among the various species of 

 animals. 



1 Attempts to hold the fluid in the vessels by the addition of colloids have 

 been unsatisfactory. A more favorable result is obtained when 14 grams of salt 

 and 10 grains of crystalline sodium carbonate are administered either intrave- 

 nously or by rectum (JL J. HOGAN and M. H. FISCHER). It was accomplished 

 through reducing the swelling of the other tissues by hypertonic saline and neu- 

 tralization of acid by the alkali. Cholera collapse, which results from the water 

 deprivation by reason of diarrhoea, may be successfully combated by hypertonic 

 saline infusions (ROGER), [W. M. Bayliss and M. H. Fischer have recommended 

 the use of gum arabic solution, and it is being successfully employed at the front 

 in the present war, see p. 137. Tr.J 



