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Credit: Physiological chemistry (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![follicles of the large intestine), I have found only 1-127§ of albumen, with 0-448? of extractive matters, and 1-014{} of salts. In the transu- dation from the cerebral capillaries, in hydrocephalus ex vacuo (cerebral atrophy in an old man), I found 0444§ ; in congenital hydrocephalus, 0-012§ ; and in hydrocele, 6-283g, 4-982{}, 4-055g, and 3-410^ of pure albumen. Without quoting any additional results obtained either by myself or under my superintendence, and some of which support, while others are opposed to the law which Schmidt has attempted to establish, I will merely give a few numbers obtained by other chemists; in an effusion within the cerebral ventricles Berzelius1 found 0-166g, Mulder 0-055$, and Tennant 0-3033 °f albumen; in a transudation within the perito- neum, v. Bibra2 found 2-9§, Vogel3 3*3g, in one case and only 0-09g in another, Dublanc (like v. Bibra) 2-9$, Marchand 0-238g, and Simon4 0-84g of albumen; in a case of hydrocele the last-named chemist found 4*83{} and v. Bibra 4-8-g, and in oedema of the feet Simon found 0-70g of albumen. If we compare the results of different analysts, it might seem at first sight that they are opposed to Schmidt's postulate, that the transudation of each individual group of capillaries has a special and a constant com- position ; but a closer examination of the relations accompanying these transudations renders it tolerably evident that this proposition is unques- tionably established, but that, like all natural laws, it is modified in its results or actions by other valid laws, and that thus its direct recognition is not very obvious. We can, therefore, only demonstrate this proposi- tion when we compare with one another the simultaneous transudations of different capillary groups under identical conditions. We then cer- tainly find that the relative quantity of albumen is tolerably equal in the different transudations, but we must not hence conclude, as Schmidt seems inclined to assume, that the quantity of albumen in the transuda- tion of each group of capillaries is, under all conditions, represented by j^efinite number; for different conditions may come into play, which efert an influence on the composition of the transudation. The transu- dation is not the result of merely a single factor; it depends not only on the thickness or the delicacy of the capillaries, but on the rapidity of the current of blood, and on the constitution of the blood itself. Even if there were not sufficient positive facts to establish the position that the composition of the transudation from the same capillary system varies under different conditions, we might a priori conclude that, on the one hand, when the current of blood in the capillaries is very slow, and there is great distension of their walls, the composition of the transudation will be very different from what it would have been under opposite conditions, and that, on the other hand, its composition, and consequently its amount of albumen, will vary extremely with the vary- ing physical and chemical characters of the blood. The capillaries also appear to vary in their capacity for transudation ' Lehrb. d. Ch. Bd. 9, S. 198. 2 Chem. Untersuch. verschied. Eiterarten, S. 160 u. 170. 3 Path. Anat. Th. 1, S. 16 [or English translation, p. 37]. 4 Med. Chem. Bd. 2, S. 582 [or English translation, vol. ii. p. 493].](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136300_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
