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Dr. L. C. Wooldridge. 



[Apr. 8, 



April 8, 1886. 



Professor STOKES, D.C.L., President in the Chair. 



The Presents received were laid on the table, and thanks ordered 

 for them. 



The Croonian Lecture was delivered : — 



I. Ckoonian Lecture.—" On the Coagulation of the Blood.'* 

 By L. C. Wooldridge, M.B., D.Sc, Demonstrator of Phy- 

 siology in Guy's Hospital and Research Scholar to the 

 Grocers' Company. Communicated by Professor M. FOSTER, 

 Sec. R.S. Received April 6, 1886. 



(Abstract.) 



1. As to the relation of the corpuscular elements of the blood to 

 coagulation. The plasma itself contains all the elements necessary 

 for coagulation. 



The white blood corpuscles probably aid coagulation to a certain 

 extent, but their influence is entirely secondary. 



The really important factor in initiating coagulation is a substance 

 dissolved in the plasma, discovered by the author, and called by him 

 A-fibrinogen. Lymph cells differ from white blood corpuscles ; they 

 are very active in inducing coagulation. 



2. As to the chemical processes of coagulation, the author considers 

 there are three coagulable bodies present in the plasma. These he 

 names A-, B-, and C-fibrinogen.* They are closely allied to one 

 another, and are not separated by a sharp line from one another. 



C-fibrinogen is identical with the body which has hitherto been 

 known as fibrinogen, but it is only present in minimal quantities in 

 blood plasma ; it is coagulable with fibrin ferment. The bulk of the 

 coagulable matter of the plasma is B-fibrinogen ; it clots on the 

 addition of lecithin; it does not clot with fibrin ferment; it clots 

 with leucocytes from lymph glands. 



A-fibrinogen is separable from the plasma by cooling ; it separates 

 as minute, regular, rounded granules ; it is not coagulable by fibrin 

 ferment. 



A- and B-fibrinogen are compounds of proteid and lecithin. The 



These names are provisional. 



