ON THE rnYSIOLOGT OF THE LYMniATIC SYSTEM. 129 



mixed -with many times its volame of a 2 per cent. ' sodium chloride 

 solution, and the corpuscles separated from the salted serum by the uso 

 of the centrifugal machine ; the mass of corpuscles is then mixed with 

 more salt solution of the same strength, and the process repeated several 

 times. The corpuscles thus ultimately obtained free from serum are 

 mixed with five or six times their volume of water, and a little ether 

 added until the solution is perfectly transparent. The white corpuscles 

 which are unaltered by this treatment sink to the bottom of the vessel, 

 and again the separation may be hastened by the use of the centrifuge. 

 The supernatant fluid is then treated with a 1 per cent, solution of acid 

 sodium sulphate, drop by drop, until the fluid, at first clear, becomes as 

 thick as the original blood. The precipitate which consists of the 

 stromata soon collects into coarse flocculi, which are collected on a filter. 



This precipitate is washed free from adherent pigment by a very 

 weak solution of acid sodium sulphate as quickly as possible, as prolonged 

 exposure to this reagent renders the stromata insoluble. 



They may then be extracted by saline solutions, such as a 5 per cent, 

 solution of sodium chloride or magnesium sulphate, and these extracts 

 examined by the methods of heat coagulation, and precipitation by 

 neutral salts. 



The following are the results obtained : — 



1. On heating a saline extract of the stromata there was never the 

 appearance of cloudiness, much less of a precipitate, below the temperature 

 of 60° C. Cell-globulin a is therefore absent. 



2. Cell-globulin fi, or cell-globulin, as it will be called in subsequent 

 parts of the paper, is present, and is practically the only proteid of the 

 stromata. Its characteristics are as follows : — 



a. In solutions containing a minimal amount of salt, or from 5-10 per 

 cent, of magnesium sulphate, it is coagulated at a temperature of 75° C. 



b. In solutions containing 5-10 per cent, of sodium chloride, it is 

 coagulated at a much lower temperature, 60°-65° C. 



c. It is precipitable from its solutions by carbonic acid, by dialysis, 

 and by saturation with sodium chloride incompletely ; by saturation with 

 magnesium sulphate or ammonium sulphate completely. 



d. It possesses fibrino-plastic activity — i.e., it has the power of hasten- 

 ing the formation of fibrin in dilute salted plasma, or of pericardial, 

 hydrocele, and similar fluids. Solutions lose this activity when the 

 globulin is removed, or when its characteristic properties are destroyed, 

 as by a temperature of 75° C. The globulin is thus either closely con- 

 nected to the fibrin ferment, or, as it seems more probable to us, is 

 identical with it. 



Stroma-globulin has all these characteristics. Cell-globulin and 

 stroma-globulin are thus probably the same ; they resemble paraglobulin 

 (or serum-globulin) in characteristics a and c. They differ from it in 

 characteristics b and cl. 



3. TJie stromata do not contain cell- albumin, or it is only present in the 

 merest traces ; this conclusion is arrived at after examining the extracts 

 from which the globulin is removed by saturation with magnesium sul- 

 phate. 



4. The stromata do not contain nticlein or nncleo-albumin. — Neither they 

 nor the unaltered corpuscles swell into a slimy mass on admixture with 

 sodium chloride or magnesium sulphate ; lecithin appears to be the only 



' We found a 1 per cent, solution better to use. 

 1889. K 



