Chemical pathology : being a discussion of general pathology from the standpoint of the chemical processes involved / by H. Gideon Wells.

  • Wells, H. Gideon (Harry Gideon), 1875-1943.
Date:
1920
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chemical pathology : being a discussion of general pathology from the standpoint of the chemical processes involved / by H. Gideon Wells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    really did ionize. Probably all soluble substances do dissociate to a certain minimal degree, but it is so slight for most of the constituents of the cell except the inorganic salts (the organic acids and alkalies, and a few dissociable organic products of protein metabolism, occur in such insignificant amounts as to be almost negligible) that without them there would be little chemical activity possible, and hence life would be absent or at a very low ebb indeed. As before mentioned, the inorganic salts probably exist in the cell not only as salts, but also, and perhaps chiefly, as ions and ionic compounds with the cell proteins. Many applications of the facts and theories of ionization have been made in physiology and a few applications have also been made in pathology, especially the relation of ions to edema, to diuresis and glycosuria, and also to problems of immunity. No attempt will be made here to go further into the observations and theories concerning ionization or its role in physiology, but for more extensive information as well as for the complete bibliography the works mentioned below may be referred to.17 The applications in pathology will be brought out as the subject under discussion in subsequent chapters necessitates and it is largely to facilitate the understanding of such reference that this brief summary of the subject of ionization has been introduced. In the same spirit we take up the subjects of diffusion and osmosis. Diffusion and Osmosis.—Although the non-electrolytes do not ionize to any considerable extent, and therefore are relatively inactive chemically, the crystalloidal non-electrolytes, of which sugar and urea are the two chief examples among the cell constituents, possess in common with the electrolytes the important property of diffusion. By this process the exchange of chemical substances between the blood and the cell is brought about, by it the chemical composition of the different parts of the cell and between different cells is equalized, and without it chemical change would be practically impossible. Dif- fusion occurs most simply between two solutions of unlike nature, or between a solution of a substance and the solvent alone, when placed directly in contact with one another. If we place in the bot- tom of a cylindrical vessel a solution of copper sulphate and above it some water, carefully avoiding mixing, it will be found after some time that the fluid has become equally blue throughout. This is brought about by the movement of the dissolved particles which gradually carries them through the entire mass of fluid, and as their migration is against the force of gravity, they evidently accomplish 17 “Physical Chemistry in the Service of Medicine,” Wolfgang Pauli, transla- tion by M. H. Fischer, New York, 1907. “ Physikalische Chemie der Zelle und der Gewebe,” Hober, Leipzig, 1915. “Osmotische Druck und Ionenlehre in den medicinischen Wissenschaften,” Hamburger, Wiesbaden. “Studies in General Physiology,” Loeb, University of Chicago Press, 1905. “Dynamics of Living Matter,” Loeb, Columbia University Press, New York, 1906. Spiro and J. Loeb Oppenheimer’s “Handbuch der Biochemie,” 1908 (2), 1-141. “Physical Chem- istry of Vital Phenomena,” McClendon, Princeton Univ. Press, 1917.