ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 147 



cannot be regarded as consisting of normal protoplasm. Many of the 

 results obtained in this research, however, corroborate Miescher's facts. 



The liquid which was found the best to dissolve the proteids of lymph 

 cells was a partially saturated solution o£ sodium sulpbate. Such a 

 solution was prepared by mixing a certain volume of saturated solution 

 of that salt with nine times its volume of distilled water. After 

 thoroughly shaking the cells with this solution they dissolved to a very 

 great extent, and microscopical examination of the debris showed that it 

 consisted chiefly of nuclei, with apparently pieces of shrunken protoplasm 

 adhering to or separate from the nuclei. 



The proteids present in such an extract were as follows : — 



1. A globulin which coagulates at 48°-50°. C. 



2. A globulin which coagulates at 75° C. 



3. An albumin which coagulates at 73° C. 



4. An albumin which coagulates at 80° C. 



5. Certain varieties of albumose and peptone. 



6. A proteid similar to that described by Miescher in pus, which 



swells up into a jelly-like substance when mixed with solutions 

 of sodium chloride and magnesium sulphate. It is the presence 

 of this proteid which makes a solution of sodium sulphate a 

 better liquid with which to extract the lymph-cells than either a 

 solution of sodium chloride or magnesium sulphate, as sodium 

 sulphate does not produce this peculiar phenomenon. 

 It will now be convenient to take these proteids one by one, and 

 describe each in detail. 



1. The glohulin luMch coagulates at 4<8°-50° C. — On heating the sodium 

 sulphate extract of the cells, faintly acidified with weak acetic acid, to 45°, 

 the liquid becomes opalescent, and at 48° to 50° C. a distinct flocculent 

 precipitate separates out. In one or two cases the temperature of heat- 

 coagulation was somewhat higher, in one case as high as 55°. The precipi- 

 tate, collected on a filter, has the usual characters of coagulated proteid. 

 There are comparatively few proteids which coagulate at so low a tempe- 

 rature as this. The one which it most resembles is the proteid occurring 

 in muscle plasma, which coagulates at 47°-48° C. ; this proteid has been 

 named paramyosinogen, and its properties are described elsewhere.' 

 This proteid in lymph-cells resembles it in many particulars, but differs 

 from it in certain others, which, however, are of minor importance. It 

 resembles paramyosinogen in being a proteid of the globulin class, i.e. 

 soluble in unconcentrated saline solutions, precipitable from them by 

 dialysing out the salt from such solutions, and precipitable by excess of 

 such a neutral salt as sodium chloride or magnesium sulphate. It differs 

 from paramyosinogen in being precipitable with great readiness by weak 

 acetic acid from its saline solutions, and in requiring for its complete 

 precipitation with a neutral salt, like the above-mentioned, complete 

 saturation with such a salt. The name I should propose for this proteid 

 is cell-globulin a. 



2. The globulin which coagulates at 75° C— On heating the liquid from 

 ^ hich cell-globulin abas been removed by heating to 50° C. and filtering, 

 it becomes opalescent at about 66° C, and a flocculent precipitate begins 

 to separate at about 73° C. ; this is increased by heating to 75° C. This 

 is because an albumin is present which coagulates at the former tempera- 

 ture, and a globulin at the latter. The temperatures are, however, so 



' Halliburton, ' On Muscle Plasma,' Journ. Physiology, 1887. 



L 2 



