1884.] 



On the Origin of Fibrin Ferment. 



417 



the exciting influence is withdrawn, is formed by mutual molecular 

 reactions producing closed circuits of mutual attractions as demon- 

 strated in iron. 



A line of force between a magnet and its armature is to me simply 

 a line of molecular rotation, lines would neither be added nor 

 subtracted, they could simply be rotated from a symmetrical 

 neutrality to an equal symmetrical point of saturation. 



In my paper upon the theory of magnetism, I showed that there 

 were several molecular arrangements which produced external 

 neutrality, the circular chain of molecules, when an electric current 

 passes through an iron wire, a neutrality produced by an artificial 

 superposition of a weaker contrary magnetism upon one more 

 internal, and made the supposition that were it possible to have a piece 

 of iron free from the influence of the earth, then (if there had been no 

 previous magnetisation directing the structure) the molecules would 

 short circuit their mutual attractions in the shortest path. 



The experiments cited in this paper are of an extremely simple 

 nature, and after being verified by independent observers can no longer 

 leave doubt as to the cause of neutrality. 



"Whatever theory we adopt as an explanation of evident magnetism, 

 it will be found that neutrality occurring after the cessation of an 

 external inducing force upon a bar of iron or steel, is the result of 

 symmetrically opposed polar forces, producing apparent waves of 

 opposite polarity, or reactions between the exterior and interior of a 

 bar of iron. 



II. " On the Origin of the Fibrin Ferment." By L. C. Wool- 

 DRlDGrE, M.B., D.Sc., George Henry Lewes Student. Com- 

 municated by Professor M. Foster, Sec. R.S. Received 

 February 26, 1884. 



The " fibrin ferment " which makes its appearance in shed blood is 

 generally, I believe, supposed to arise from the cellular elements of 

 blood, either from ordinary white corpuscles or from some special kind 

 of corpuscles, the cells so concerned discharging the ferment into the 

 blood or setting it free by their actual disintegration. Without wish- 

 ing to deny that this may be one source of fibrin ferment, I am able, 

 I think, to bring forward evidence that ferment may make its appear- 

 ance in blood-plasma perfectly free from cellular, and indeed from all 

 formed elements, in which case it must arise from some constituents 

 of the plasma itself, and not from cells of any kind. 



It will be most convenient, perhaps, if I state the facts which 

 I have to bring forward in connexion with two series of experiments. 



