Note on the state in which fibrin exists in the blood / by Andrew Anderson.

  • Anderson, Andrew, 1818-1870.
Date:
[1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Note on the state in which fibrin exists in the blood / by Andrew Anderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    varying power: iu sthenic inflammation, when the system is otherwise in health, the coagulnm shrinks during many hours, and the huffy coat forms a tough leathery covering to the clot. In asthenic or specific inflammation, as for example in the ophthalmitis post- febrilis,* occurring as a too frequent sequela of the fever lately epidemic in Glasgow, we have still the increased formation of fibrin and white corpuscles, still the greater mutual attraction of the red globules, and still the buffy coat; but it does not contract much, but maintains a gelatinous appearance, a state obviously owing to a vital power of the fibrin in some way diminished. It remains for chemistry to tell whether the ultimate analysis of such a buffy crust differ from that of the more common kind; but from the difficulty of procuring material, it is probable the question may remain long unsolved. But we have more : the red blood corpuscles have always a certain mutual attraction, clinging closely in death to one another; inflamma- tion increases this, and likewise the quantity of fibrin and white cor- puscles, and so the buffy coat is formed. But this takes place within a very few minutes: the subsequent contraction of the clot, by which the serum is squeezed from its interstices, is the work, not of the globules hut of the fibrin; hence we find in one case a clot much contracted, though without a buff; in another buffy blood, of which the clot and even the buff itself are loose and soft; in still another the coagulum is soft and presents no buff; while there are also cases where the clot is small and dense, as well as clothed with a firm leathery coating. The first occurs in sthenic states, where the fibrin is highly vitalised, but no inflammation is present—in plethora for instance : the second, where we have inflammation with an asthenic state of the system—-as in the postfebrile ophthalmitis: the third, where much debility exists, with- out any local inflammation—as in fever: and the fourth, where, as in sthenic acute inflammation, there is a local disease, and an active state of the system besides. These differences point at some element of the doctrine of the pro- perties of blood, which it will go hard if chemistry alone can explain. * Mackenzie.