On the Coagulation of the Blood. 



267 



himself.* It is on these grounds, then, that I hold we cannot regard 

 peptone plasma as being at all comparable to normal plasma. 



With the removal of " fibrinogen A " the whole complex theory as 

 formulated by Wooldridge falls to the ground ; and we are left with 

 "fibrinogen B" of the later communication, which is Hammarsten's 

 fibrinogen. It is advisable to confine strictly the use of the term 

 " fibrinogen " to this substance. 



3. Intravascular Coagulation. — Under this heading my remarks will 

 be of the nature of criticism only. No doubt the crude and impure 

 substance (for there is no attempt at purification, separation, or iden- 

 tification) introduced into the veins produces intravascular clotting ; 

 but I must protest against the extension of the name fibrinogen to 

 such substances. It seems to me it would be just as correct to call a 

 piece of iron wire introduced into the sac of an aneurysm to produce 

 coagulation there, a fibrinogen. 



Some of Wooldridge's experiments under this head have been 

 repeated by Kriiger ; f he finds, in opposition to Wooldridge, that 

 leucocytes themselves produce intravascular clotting (which would 

 agree perfectly well with the cell globulin theory), and also that the 

 stromata of red corpuscles, which probably contain the same con- 

 stituents in great measure as the white corpuscles, act similarly; 

 other experiments have led him to the conclusion that it is the cor- 

 puscular elements that play the chief part in the coagulation, both 

 within and without the body. He entirely negatives the statement 

 of Wooldridge that the fluid of the lymph gland produces this effect, 

 and any slight action it may have is accounted for by the presence of 

 some leucocytes, which are exceedingly difficult to remove completely, 

 even by centrifugalising. 



To return, however, to these tissue fibrinogens of Wooldridge, I 

 think we may venture to offer a suggestion as to their real nature, or, 

 at any rate, as to the nature of one of their constituents. From the 

 last paper published by Wooldridge, J we find that they are imper- 

 fectly soluble in water, readily precipitated by acids, and soluble in 

 excess of those reagents. That they yield on gastric digestion a sub- 

 ; stance which is insoluble and which is rich in phosphorus. From 

 these details of their properties, I think, we may draw the conclu- 

 sion not that they contain lecithin, as Wooldridge affirms, but that 

 they belong to the group of proteids described in the former part of 

 this paper under Hammarsten's name of nucleo-albumin. Nucleo- 

 a^umins yield when poured into water a stringy precipitate resem- 

 bling mucin, and in a former paper Wooldridge§ speaks of the preci- 



* ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 38, 1885, p. 263. 

 f ' Zeitscbr. Biol.,' vol. 24, p. 189 et seq. 

 X ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 43, 1888, p. 367. 

 § Ibid., vol. 40, 1886, p. 134. 

 VOL. XLIV. T 



