Diseases of the blood / by P. Ehrlich ... K. von Noorden ... A. Lazarus ... F. Pinkus ... ; ed. with additions by Alfred Stengel ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel.

  • Alfred Stengel
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the blood / by P. Ehrlich ... K. von Noorden ... A. Lazarus ... F. Pinkus ... ; ed. with additions by Alfred Stengel ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    the medium in which he preserved the corpuscles and made his observa- tions. In a review of Deetjen's article* the editor expressed the view that the phenomena observed by Deetjen might be entirely due to physical conditions, and cited his own experience with degenerative changes in red corpuscles and amebae. Not rarely small spherical bodies can be broken off from the parent red corpuscle or from an ameba by the effects of heat or chemic agents. These small extruded bodies pre- sent the features seen by Deetjen. The writer's own view has been for a long time that the red corpuscles are the source of the blood-plaques. Hirschfeld2 came to a similar conclusion as a result of studies made with dried preparations of blood. Schwalbe3 believes that the blood-plaques originate from the leuko- cytes as well as from the erythrocytes.—Ed.] Our knowledge of the physiologic function of the blood-platelets is likewise very incomplete. The original view of Hayem, that they were early stages of the red blood-corpuscles, on account of which he desig- nated them hematoblasts, is, according to the majority of hematolo- gists, without foundation. Almost all recent works (compare Lowit's view) recognize a close relation between blood-platelets and clotting. This was first noticed by Bizzozero. Whether the material for the formation of fibrin comes directly from the platelets, as Bizzozero contends, or whether the plate- lets, corresponding to the observations of Eberth and Schimmelbusch on thrombosis, play only an intermediate role, has not been determined. To go into the chemistry of this complicated problem would lead us too far, and the writer will content himself, therefore, with presenting a few clinical observations to illustrate the relation between the coagu- lability of the blood and the number of platelets. Marked increase of the blood-platelets is found especially in chlorosis (Muir) and post-hemorrhagic anemia (Hayem). In both conditions the increased coagulability of the blood is pronounced. In contrast to this there is the important observation of Denys, who found in two cases of purpura in which the coagulability of the blood was markedly decreased, or even absent, a striking diminution of the platelets as the only mor- phologic alteration of the blood. Ehrlich also had the opportunity of examining a similar case in which the blood-platelets were entirely absent. Blood-dust.—A fourth formed constituent of the blood was described 1 Progressive Medicine, June, 1902. 2 Virchovfs Archiv, Bd. clxvi., Heft 2. 3 Wien. klin. Rundschau, 1903, xvii., 9, p. 157.
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