Scientific Proceedings. 



ii3 



to 5.4 mm. Other alkali earth chlorides showed similar action. 

 Heavy metal salts, short of the concentrations that cause precipita- 

 tion, are still more effective as depressants. 



80 (223) 



Hemolysis in eclampsia. 



By JAMES EWING. 



[From the Department of Pathology, Cornell University Medical 

 College, New York City.'] 



There are several reasons suggesting that a hemolytic agent 

 of placental origin may be of essential importance in eclampsia. 

 The occurrence of methemoglobinuria, the possible relation of the 

 hepatic thromboses to hemolyzed red cells, the resemblance 

 between the eclamptic lesions and those produced by the injection 

 of eclamptic serum or of immune hemolytic serum in rabbits, the 

 possible origin of the eclamptic toxin from the placenta which 

 normally possesses a hemolytic ferment, the marked hypertrophy 

 and desquamation of the syncytium at term and during labor, and 

 the relief of the symptoms in many cases as soon as the placenta 

 is removed, all tend to indicate a hemolytic agent derived from the 

 placenta as a factor in the disease. 



In order to obtain some information regarding this subject I 

 examined the placenta in fifteen cases of eclampsia, and the circu- 

 lating blood and the viscera of several fatal cases for evidence of 

 hemolysis. If any marked degree of hemolysis had occurred 

 during life one would expect to find evidences of it in fresh 

 emulsions of placental blood made shortly after delivery. Spreads 

 of the blood on glass slides were also examined for evidence of 

 agglutination and hemolysis, and sections of the placenta hardened 

 in Orth's fluid were examined. Several normal placentas were 

 first tested, and in these no evidences of hemolysis appeared 

 immediately or after three to fifteen hours in the thermostat. In 

 spreads and sections of normal cases the red cells often appeared 

 moderately clumped without being fused. In only one of the 

 eclamptic placentas was evidence of hemolysis secured, and this 

 occurred in a fatal case in which, also, similar evidence was found 

 in the uterine, portal and hepatic veins. The urine was bloody. 



