COMPOSITION OF EDEMATOUS FLUIDS 301 



VARIETIES OF EDEMATOUS FLUIDS 



On the preceding pages have been mentioned the chief dif- 

 ferences in the characters of the effusions in the usual sites/ 

 with their variations in proteid contents, which variation agrees 

 with Starling's statement that the permeability of the capillary 

 wall for proteids differs normally in different localities. Some 

 of the other effusion fluids not mentioned previously have 

 particular properties of some interest. 



Hydrocele and Spermatocele Fluids. These have 

 been studied particularly by Hammarsten, 2 who found the 

 average results of analyses of seventeen hydrocele fluids and 

 four spermatocele fluids as follows : 



TABLE V. 



Hydrocele Spermatocele 



Water . 938.85 986.83 



Solids 61.15 13.17 



Fibrin 0.59 



Globulin 13.25 0.59 



Seralbumin 35.94 1.82 



Ether-extractive bodies ...... 4.02 ) 



Soluble salts 8.60 \ 10.76 



Insoluble salts 0.66 J 



Marchetti 8 found in ten specimens of hydrocele fluid rather higher 

 results for the solids than did Hamrnarsten. He found 57. 8 to 104. 2 

 p. m. of solids, containing organic substances 48. 8 to 95.02, and inorganic 

 substances 8.10 to 9.56 ; proteids, 33.5 to 90. 19 ; ratio of globulin to 

 albumin as 2,56 to 9.11. Among the proteids is found 1 to 4 p. m. 

 that is not precipitated by heat. Corresponding with the analytic 

 results, the specific gravity of hydrocele fluid is higher, 1.016 to 1.026 as 

 against 1.006 to 1.010 for spermatocele fluid. Cholesterin is often 

 abundant in hydrocele fluids, appearing to the naked eye as glistening 

 scales. Patein 4 found sugar in most specimens of hydrocele. 



Mening-eal Effusions. 5 Normal meningeal fluid differs 

 from all other serous fluids in being clear and watery, in its 

 low specific gravity (1 .004 to 1 .007), in containing but a trace of 

 proteid which is chiefly globulin (with a trace of proteose (?)), and 

 a reducing substance that is not sugar. 6 Halliburton gives the 

 following analyses of pathological accumulations of such fluids : 



1 Literature and re'sume' on pleuritic exudates, see Ott, Chem. Pathol. der 

 Tuberc., 1903, p. 392. 



2 Physiological Chemistry, Amer. ed., 1904, p. 223. 



3 Lo Sperimentale, 1902 (56), 297. 



4 Jour, pharm. et chim., 1906 (23), 239; also Compt. Kend. Soc. Biol., 

 1906 (60), 303. 



5 Ke*sume" by Blumenthal, Ergeb. der Physiol., 1902 (1), 285. 



6 Halliburton's "Chemical Side of Nervous Activity," 1901, p. 18; see also 

 Halliburton's " Chemistry of Muscle and Nerve," 1904. 



