Elements of human physiology / by L. Hermann ; translated from the sixth edition by Arthur Gamgee.

  • Gamgee Arthur, 1841-1909.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of human physiology / by L. Hermann ; translated from the sixth edition by Arthur Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    to the protection of the tisbues, it dies but slowly in cold-blooded animals, although quickly, in spite of this, in warm-blooded; thus are explained the above-mentioned facts. The above-described phenomena show that in the process of dying the blood undergoes complex chemical changes. The most striking of these, the coagulation of fibrin, was formerly considered to be a spontaneous coagulation of an albuminous substance dis- solved in the plasma. We now know that the fibrin, as such, does not exist in the blood, but originates in the process of dying. According to the ideas most generally received (A. Schmidt >), it arises from the chemical combination of two albuminous substances, separate, although existing side by side, in the blood—' fibrinogen' and the ' fibrinoplastic substance.' This combination is brought about by a ferment—the \fihrin-ferment''—which is only deve- loped during the death of blood. Both the fibrin generators are contained in the plasma. [Schmidt's most recent researches lead him to believe that the fibrin, ferment and the fibrinoplastic substance are the results of death-changes in the colourless corpuscles of the blood and in certain cells which appear to be intermediate between the colourless and coloured corpuscles. Some of the principal grounds upon which this belief are based are—Istly, that when the coagulation of blood plasma is prevented by cold, the more superficial strata from which the colourless corpuscles have subsided coagulate very feebly, whilst the deeper strata which are crowded with colourless cor- puscles coagulate strongly; 2ndly, that in the slowly coagulating plasma of horse's blood which has been exposed to cold, a process of breaking down of the colourless and intermediate blood corpuscles appears to be the precursor of actual coagulation.] The fibrin generators are also contained in many other normal and patho- logical fluids, e.g. in lymph and chyle, in pericardial and hydrocele fluids, &c. The former of these fluids also generate the ferment, and therefore coagidate spontaneously, although more slowly than the blood ; the others do not gene- rate the ferment, and therefore coagulate only after the addition of ferment or of blood. Fibrinogen and the fibrinoplastic substance are most closely related to globulin. They can be obtained from their natural solutions in blood-plasma by the addition of water and the subsequent passage of carbonic acid ; the fibrinoplastic substance is first precipitated and carries down with it, mechani- ' A. Schmidt, ' Ueber den Faserstoff und die Ursachen seiner Gerinnung,' Miiller's Archiv, 1861, pp. 54.5-.')87, and 67.5-721 ; ' Wei teres iiber den Faserstoff und die Ursachen seiner Gerinnung,' Miiller's Archiv, 1862, pp. 428-469, and 533-.564; 'Neue Untersuchimgen Uber die Faserstoffgerinnung,' Pfliigtr's Archiv, vol. vi. (1872), pp. 413-538; 'Ueber die Beziehungen dos Faserstoffes zu den farblosen und den rothen Blutkorper- chen und Uber die Entstehung der letztcren' fvorlUufige Mittheilung von Prof. Alex. Schmidt in Dorpat), Fflilger's Archiv, vol. ix. (1874), pp. 3.53-357 ; ' Ueber die Bezieliung der Faserstoffgerinnung zu den kijrperlichen Elementen des Blutea,' 1. Theil. ' Der Faserstoffgerinnung,' Pjfiiiger's Archiv, vol. xi. (1875), pp. 291-369 ; ' Uebpr die Beziehung der Faserstoffgerinnung zii des korperliclien Elementen des Blutes,'2 Theil vol. i. (1875). pp. 515-677 ; ' Ueber die Beziehung des Kochsalzes zu einigen thierisehen Fermcntations- processen,' PflUger's Archiv, vol. xiii. (1876), pp. 93-146; ♦ Bemerkungen zu Olof Hnm- marstan's Ahhandlung ;'' Untersuchungen Uber die Faserstoffgerinnung,'P^ucrer's Archiv, vol. xiii. (1876), pp. 146-176. 6 6, y