On the Coagulation of the Blood, 



2(13 



the properties of fibrin ferment, which coagulates at 75° C.and agrees 

 in all other particulars with the substance I have named cell globulin. 

 It is derived doubtless from the white corpuscles entangled in the 

 clot. Lea and Green,* who repeated Gamgee's experiments, came to 

 somewhat opposite conclusions ; they, however, never obtained the 

 ferment free from proteid, but they concluded it was not a globulin 

 as it was soluble in distilled water; they admitted, however, that it 

 was much more soluble in saline solutions ; reading these experiments 

 in the light of a more recent paper by one of them,t it is evident that 

 they were dealing in large measure with calcium sulphate, a salt 

 which has considerable powers of aiding the activity of the fibrin 

 ferment. 



The final conclusions that are to be drawn from these researches 

 are as follows : — 



1. Lymph cells yield as one of their disintegration products a glo- 

 bulin which may be called cell globulin. This has the properties that 

 have hitherto been ascribed to fibrin ferment. 



2. Fibrin ferment as extracted from the dried alcoholic precipitate 

 of blood serum is found on concentration to be a globulin with the 

 properties of cell globulin. 



3. The fibrin ferment as extracted by saline solutions from "washed 

 blood clot " is a globulin which is also identical with cell globulin. 



•4. Serum globulin as prepared from (hydrocele fluid has no fibrino- 

 plastic properties. It may perhaps better be termed plasma glo- 

 bulin. 



5. Serum globulin as prepared from serum has marked fibrinoplastic 

 properties. This is because it consists of plasma globulin, and 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 dis- 

 integration of the white blood corpuscles : 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. 



This confirmation and amplification of Hammarsten's views con- 

 cerning the cause of the coagulation of the blood is in direct opposi- 

 tion to the theories of Wooldridge. My methods have not been the 

 same as those adopted by Wooldridge, but the final conclusions are so 

 different, that it is necessary I should state my reasons for not 

 accepting his views, nor adopting his methods. Wooldridge's theory 

 may be stated as follows : J — The coagulation of the blood is a phe- 

 nomenon essentially similar to crystallisation ; in the plasma there 

 are three constituents concerned in coagulation, A, B, and C fibrinogen. 



* ! Journ. of Physiol.,' vol. 4, p. 380. 



t Green, f Journ. of Physiol.,' toI. 8, p. 355. 



X Croonian Lecture, Koyal Society, 1886. 

 VOL. XLIV. X 



