ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 365 



made oub anythicg in addition to the facts I have already given (see last 

 year's report), with one exception, viz., the heat-coagalation temperature 

 of cell-globnlin /8 is, as there stated, 75° C. when it is dissolved in a 

 mao'nesium sulphate solution, or in a solution containing a minimal 

 quantity of sodium chloride ; but in a solution in which 5-10 per cent, of 

 sodium chloride is present the temperature of heat-coagulation falls to 

 about 60° C. 



The next subject to which I directed my attention was the influence 

 of these various proteids on the coagulation of the blood. 



The proteids were separated in the manner already detailed, excess 

 of salt removed by dialysis, and their influence on coagulation tested 

 by adding them to dilute salted plasma, to hydrocele or pericardial 

 fluid, or to vein-plasma obtained from the jugular vein of the horse by 

 what is known as the ' living test-tube ' experiment. 



A complete communication on this portion of the subject has been 

 sent to the ' Journal of Physiology,' but the main results of the investiga- 

 tion are as follows : their especial importance is the light they throw 

 upon the nature of the fibrin ferment. 



1. The only proteid in the cells which has any efi'ect in hastening the 

 coagulation of blood-plasma is the cell-globulin, which coagulates at 

 75°"C. This substance, in fact, acts like fibrin ferment. 



2. Fibrin ferment, as extracted from the dried alcoholic precipitate of 

 serum (Schmidt's method of preparation), is found on concentration to be 

 a globulin with the properties of cell-globulin. 



3. The fibrin ferment, as extracted by saline solutions from what was 

 termed ' washed blood-clot ' by Buchanan, is a globulin and this globulin 

 is also identical with cell-globulin. 



4. Seram globulin, as prepared from hydrocele fluid, has no fibrino- 

 plastic properties. It may be better termed plasma-globulin. 



5. Serum globulin, as prepared from serum, has marked fibrino-plastic 

 properties. This is because it consists of plasma-globulin plus cell- 

 globulin, derived from the disintegration of white blood corpuscles, which 

 are in origin lymph cells. 



6. The cause of the coagulation of the blood is primarily the disin- 

 tegration of the white blood corpuscles, and, perhaps, also of the blood 

 tablets ; they liberate cell-globulin, which acts as a ferment, converting 

 fibrinogen into fibrin. It does not apparently become a constituent part 

 of the fibrin formed. 



Wooldridge's theory of coagulation, which makes lecithin the chief 

 ao-ent in the process, is not considered tenable ; full reasons are given in 

 the communication to the ' Journal of Physiology' ; the essential objection 

 to that theory is, however, this: it rests upon observations chiefly made 

 with peptone-plasma, which is a very abnormal form of plasma. The 

 precipitate pi-oduced by cold and the influence of lecithin in hastening 

 coagulation, as described by Wooldridge, cannot be demonstrated with 

 salted plasma, nor with vein-plasma: observations upon this latter form of 

 plasma are of especial importance, as it is unmixed with any foreign sub- 

 stance. On the other hand, the addition of cell-globulin to this plasma 

 hastens its coagulation very considerably. 



To the cell-globulin theory an objection might be urged that the 

 ferment and the globulin are not identical, but only closely associated 

 together. This objection cannot at present be fully met ; if, however, the 

 two are not identical but only combined, it must be admitted that the 



