A manual of clinical diagnosis by means of microscopical and chemical methods : for students, hospital physicians and practitioners / by Charles E. Simon.

Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A manual of clinical diagnosis by means of microscopical and chemical methods : for students, hospital physicians and practitioners / by Charles E. Simon. 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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    The tubes are cleansed by removing the clots with a fine wire; they are then washed with water, with alcohol, and finally with ether. Since the formation of fibrin begins as soon as the blood has left its natural channels, it is apparent that absolutely accurate analyses of blood-plasma can hardly be expected. The appended analyses of the plasma of the horse’s blood are taken from Hoppe-Seyler and Hammarsten, the figures having reference to 1000 parts : Water . . . . Solids . . . . Total albumins Fibrin . . . . Globulin . . . Serum-albumin Fat Extractives . . Soluble salts Insoluble salts . 908.4 91.6 77.6 10.1 l-2] 4.0 6.4 f 1.7 J 917.6 82.4 69.5 6.5 38.4 26.4 12.9 The chief points of difference between plasma and serum are the absence of fibrinogen and the presence of traces of fibrino-globulin, as well as of large quantities of fibrin ferment, in the latter. From the following table it will be seen that a marked difference exists in the nature of the mineral ingredients between serum and the red corpuscles, the latter being relatively rich in potassium salts and phosphorus, and poor in sodium salts and chlorine. The figures have reference to 1000 parts of blood: Man. Woman. Red Red corpuscles. Serum. corpuscles. Serum. K20 1.586 0.153 1.412 0.200 Na20 0.241 1.661 0.648 1.916 CaO MgO . . . . . . Fe205 Cl 0.898 1.722 0.362 1.440 P205 0.695 0.071 0.643 2.202 It is noteworthy that the amount of sodium chloride in the serum, 6 to 7 pro mille, remains fairly constant no matter whether large amounts are ingested or none at all is given. It is probable that the sodium chloride of the plasma serves the purpose of pre- venting the haemoglobin of the corpuscles from being dissolved by the water of the blood. The term “ isotonic ” has been applied by Hamburger1 to a salt solution which is just strong enough to pre- vent the solvent action of the water upon the haemoglobin of the red 1 Hamburger, Zeit. f. Biol., vol. xxvi. p. 414 ; Ibid., vol. xxvii. p. 259 ; and Virchow’s Archiv, vol. cxl. p. 503.