Volume 1

A text-book of human physiology : including histology and microscopical anatomy with special reference to the requirements of practical medicine / by L. Landois ; translated from the seventh German edition with additions by William Stirling.

Landois, L. (Leonard), 1837-1902. Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen. English

Date:: 1891

Credit: A text-book of human physiology : including histology and microscopical anatomy with special reference to the requirements of practical medicine / by L. Landois ; translated from the seventh German edition with additions by William Stirling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$number of colourless corpuscles are dissolved {F. Hoffmann). The injection of peptone, Hb, and to a less degree of distilled water, is followed by dissolution of numerous leucocytes. There are changes iu the blood, constituting true blood diseases, in which the physiological metabolism of the colourless corpuscles is enormously increased, so that the metabolic products accumulate in the blood {Alex. Schmidt). The result of this is spontaneous coagulation within the circulatory system, and death even may occur; there is always an increase of tempera- ture. After such a condition the coagulability of the blood is diminished, 31. Formation of Fibrin,—After several observers had shown that the red blood-corpuscles (bird, horse, frog) participate in the production of fibrin, Landois observed, in 1874, nnder the microscope that the stromata of the red blood-corpuscles of mammals passed into fibrin. If a drop of defibrinated rabbit's blood be placed in serum of frog's blood, without mixing them, the red corpuscles can be seen collecting together; their surfaces are sticky, and they can only be separated by a moderate pressure on the cover-glass, whereby some of the no^v spherical corpuscles are drawn out into threads. The corpuscles soon become spherical, and those at the margin allow the hsemoglobin to escape ; the decolorisation progresses, from the margin inwards, until at last there remain masses of stroma adhering together. The stroma-substance is very sticky, but soon the cell-contours disappear, and the stromata adhere and form fine fibres. Thus (according to Landois) the formation of fibrin from red blood-corpuscles can be traced step by step. The red corpuscles of man and animals, when dissolved in the serum of other animals, show much the same phenomena. Stroma-Fibrin and Plasma-Fibrin,—Landois calls fibrin formed direct from stroma, stroma- fihrin ; fibrin formed in the usual way, The stroma-fibrin is closely related chemically to stroma itself ; as yet, however, the two kinds of fibrin have not been sharply distinguished chemically. Substances which rapidly dissolve red corpuscles cause extensive coagulation, e.g., injection of bile or bile salts, or lake-coloured blood, into arteries. After the injection of foreign blood the newly-injected blood often breaks up in the blood-vessels of the recipient, while the finer vessels are frequently found plugged with small thrombi (§ 102). 32. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF PLASMA AND SERUM.—I. Proteids occur to the amount of 8 to 10 per cent, in the plasma. Only 0*2 per cent, of these go to form fibrin. After the formation of the fibrin the plasma is converted into serum. The sp. gr. of human serum is 1027 to 1029. It contains several Proteids, [According to Hammarsten, human serum contains 9-207 per cent, of solids,—of these, 3-103 = serum-globulin, and 4-516 = serum-albumin, z'.e., in the ratio of 1 : l'öll. In horse-serum the proportion is 4 5 : 2-6, in ox-serum 4*16 : 3-329, and rabbit-serum 1*78 : 4-43. The total amount of proteids in blood seems to be much more constant than are the relative proportions of serum-albumin and serum-globulin (SaUioU).] [The following table, compiled by Gamgee from Hammarsten's researches, shows that the proportion of serum-globulin to serum-albumin varies remarkably ; in some cases serum- globulin is the most abundant proteid in the serum of some animals, while in others it is the reverse :— Variety of Serum, Total solids in 100 parts. Total pro- teids in 100 parts. Serum- globulin in 100 parts. Serum- albumin in 100 parts. Lecitliin, fat, salts, &c., in 100 parts. Ratio of Serum- globulin to Serum- albumin. From blood of horse, 8-597 7-257 4-565 2-677 1-340 1 : 0-591 ,, ox, . 8-965 7-499 4-169 3-329 1-466 1 : 0-842 ,, man,, 9-207 7-619 3-103 4-516 1-587 1 : 1-511 ,, rabbit. 7-525 6-225 1-788 4-436 1-299 1:2-5 ] (a) Serum-globulin or Paraglobulin (2 to 4 per cent,). If crystals of magnesium sulphate be added to saturation to serum at 35° C., serum-globulin is precipitated, but not serum-albumin. It is soluble in 10 per cent, solution of common salt, and coagulates at 69-75° C. Its specific rotatory power is - 47°*8 (Fredericq). [Serum-globulin was described by Panum under the name of serum-casein; by Al, Schmidt, as fibrino-plastic substance ; and by Kühne, as paraglobulin,]$