304 
Anticoagulin in Ticks 
(i.e., 1 c.c. of solution corresponded to 1 tick). He found that 3—4 c.c. 
of solution prevented the coagulation of 20 c.c. of human and dog blood 
for 24 hours, that 8 c.c. of solution prevented the coagulation of 25 c.c. 
of ox and sheep blood, that 1 c.c. of solution prevented the coagulation 
of 5 c.c. of guinea-pig blood. When only 2 c.c. and 6 c.c. of solution 
were added to 25 c.c. of ox and sheep blood respectively, coagulation 
was markedly retarded. The anticoagulin also acted upon pig and frog 
blood. 
When the solution was injected intravenously into dogs and their 
blood was sampled after intervals of 3—25—40 minutes, it was found 
that the blood samples did not coagulate or coagulated very slightly 
after 24 hours. The dose administered corresponded to about 1 gramme 
of tick per kilo of dog. The effect was less evident in the case of the 
cat, rabbit and guinea-pig. Lymph taken from the thoracic duct of 
dogs treated with the “ tick solution ” did not coagulate. A solution 
made from male ticks likewise exerted an anticoagulating action in vivo. 
On heating the solution to boiling (100 C.), for 5—10 minutes, it no 
longer exerted an anticoagulating action. He extracted the active 
principle in the manner that Haycraft (1884) 1 did for “ hirudin ” in the 
case of leeches. He added absolute alcohol to the solution, collected the 
precipitate, dried it and redissolved it in salt solution. The extract 
prepared in this manner also contained anticoagulin. 
Sabbatani found that intravenous injections of the solution produced 
grave effects in all the animals upon which he experimented: rapid and 
marked decrease in blood pressure; rapid heart-beat, soon followed by 
stoppage of the heart’s action; respiration was slowed and then stopped. 
If the animals did not die whilst the injection was being practiced, they 
showed profound prostration, loss of reflexes, even complete paralysis. 
Moderate doses, administered to dogs and cats, caused diarrhoea, 
vomiting, loss of coordination, tremor, decreased blood pressure and 
rapid pulse, and the animals, after remaining feeble for hours, slowly 
recovered. Small doses exerted little or no effect. Dogs were very 
susceptible to the action of the tick extract, cats less so, whilst cattle 
and sheep were relatively resistant. 
Blood corpuscles exposed to the action of tick extracts did not 
become haemolysed but they became crenated after 8—12 hours. The 
leucocytes appeared to be more resistant than the corpuscles. 
The observations of Sabbatani have been quoted thus at length for 
1 Arch. f. exper. Pathol, u. Pharmakol. xvm. p. 209. 
