130 DEPORT— 1889. 



phosphorised constituent of the red discs. This confirms the statement 

 of Hoppe-Seyler,' that nuclein is only present in the nucleated red blood 

 corpuscles of the lower vertebrates. 



5. Albumoses and peptones are also absent. — After the separation of the 

 globulin the extracts were never found to give the characteristic reactions 

 of these substances. 



General conclusions. — The mammalian red blood corpuscle is not a cell 

 in the strict morphological sense of the word; it has no nucleus. It is 

 also not a cell in the chemical sense, for not only is nuclein absent, but 

 the only proteid present of the four normally existing in typical cells is 

 cell-globulin, and this exists in the stroma in small quantities only. 



The presence of fibrin ferment in the red discs suggests the question 

 whether they contribute to the formation of fibrin in coagulation as it 

 normally occurs in shed blood. There is certainly no necessity to sup- 

 pose that they shed out any ferment, as they undergo little or no disinte- 

 gration in shed blood ; but it is nevertheless possible that under certain 

 circumstances they may assist in the formation of fibrin, and that 

 Landois' ' stroma-fibrin ' may be possibly accounted for in this manner. 



Bonne ^ suggests that in cases of disease in which the red corpuscles 

 are disintegrated within the blood-vessels (hsemoglobinEemia), the febrile 

 disturbance that accompanies this condition may be due to the presence 

 of fibrin-ferment derived from the stromata of the discs so dissolved. 



The Aqueous Hctmouk. 



Chavvas ^ showed that the anterior chamber of the eye must be looked 

 upon as _ essentially a lymph space, since the formation of the aqueous 

 humour is dependent upon the arterial pressure. Lohmeyer's * analyses 

 of aqueous humour are also not antagonistic to the supposition that the 

 fluid in the aqueous chamber is lymph. 



Water in parts per 1,000 , . 986-87 



Proteids 1-23 



Extractives 4.-21 



Sodium chloride 6-89 



Other salts ' o-81 



1,00000 



We are, however, not aware that hitherto the individual organic 

 constituents of this fluid have been examined. 



The fluid was obtained from the freshly-removed eyes of oxen by 

 means of an ordinary hypodermic syringe. It was clear, colourless, 

 limpid, and free from formed elements. 



_ In most cases it did not clot spontaneously, but sometimes it did so ; 

 this was perhaps owing to admixture with blood during its removal from 

 the eye, as in all cases there was a well-marked formation of fibrin on 

 admixture with fibrin ferment or cell-globulin. 



This was filtered ofi", and the filtrate was found to contain a proteid 

 precipitable by saturation with magnesium sulphate, and coagulated by 

 the temperature of 75° C. (serum-globulin). The filtrate also contained 

 a proteid which coagulated at about the same temperature, but which 

 was not precipitable by saturation with magnesium sulphate (serum- 

 albumin). 



> Handhvch, 5th Aufl., p. 429. « Ueher das Mbrin-ferment. Wiirzburg, 1889. 

 » Pfluger's Arcliiv, xvi. 143. * See Gorup-Besanez, Lchrhuoh (1878), p. 401. 



