Elements of human physiology / by Henry Power.

  • Henry Power
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of human physiology / by Henry Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    capable of inducing coagulation when brought into contact with another substance contained in the trans- udate j and Schmidt believes he has been able to show that whilst the ferment, and a large part of the para- globulin, proceed from the white corpuscles, the fibrino- genous substance is contained in solution in the liquid, and that he has isolated these substances. The reasons for believing that the ferment is derived from the white corpuscles are : (1) That there is evidence that the ferment does not proceed from the red corpuscles. (2) That blood freed from its white corpuscles by filtration at 0° C. coagulates late and slowly ; yet, if temporarily raised to 1G°—20° C, and re-cooled and filtered, the filtrate, though destitute of white cor- puscles, is rich in ferment, the corpuscles having had the opportunity of parting with it. (3) That the quantity of ferment in filtered plasma, which removes the white corpuscles, is not greater at the end of coagulation than at the beginning, whilst, in non-filtered plasma, the ferment undergoes great increase during the act of coagulation. The reasons for believing that the paraglobulin is partly derived from the white corpuscles are : (1) That filtered plasma gives nearly 30 per cent, less fil)rin than unfiltered plasma. (2) That the number of white corpuscles in the blood is greater before than after coagulation.^ * A somewhat different view of the cause of the coagulation of the blood has lately been advanced by Olof Hammarsten, who maintains that paraglobulin, though it may exert a favourable in- fluence, is not essential to the solidification of fibrin. He considers that all that is necessary for this purpose is a solution of fibrinogen and a ferment, for he finds that if the whole of the globulin is pre- cipitated from serum by magnesium sulphate, coagulation will still occur, whilst if to a perfectly pure solution of fibrinogen a solution of ferment be added, coagulation at once takes place, the quan- tity of fibrin formed being always less than that of the fibrinogen originally present, which is due to the fibrinogen breaking up into fibrin, and a soluble globulin.
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