riBRINE IN THE HUMAN BODY. 



185 



The following figures showing the proportion of fibrine, are the 

 result of experiments upon five horses. 



Several facts result from these analyses : — First, that the blood of 

 the lesser veins (the external abdominal, a vein of the head, and a 

 digital vein) contains from one to two parts in a thousand more fibrine 

 than arterial blood ; Secondly, that the blood of the inferior vena 

 cava, after admixture with non fibrinous blood of the renal veins 

 and of the supra hepatic veins contains from one to five parts in a 

 thousand less fibrine than arterial blood. This latter result is confir- 

 matory of the evidence which shows that fibrine disappears from the 

 blood traversing the kidneys and the liver. 



An increase of only six, sevefl, or eight parts in ten thousand, in the 

 blood returning from the limbs, and from the surface of the head 

 and trunk, would be sufiicient in man to compensate for the loss of 

 fibrine which takes place in certain abdominal viscera. I leave it for 

 others to determine what influence any disturbance of the functions 

 of the kidnej^s and of the liver may exert in the transformation and 

 production of fibrine. My object has beeen to show that in all pro- 

 bability several kilogrammes of fibrine disappear daily in certain 

 organs, and that an equivalent quantity of this constituent of the 

 blood is produced in other organs. In accordance with these results, 

 one of the functions of the kidneys and the liver would be to free the 

 blood of its contained fibrine, and the formation of this element of 

 the blood would take place in. the capillaries of several organs but 

 especially in those of muscular tissue. These several points, consti- 

 tuting a fertile field for exploration, are commended to the considera- 

 tion of chemists. 



Vol. IX. 



