Specification of James Pillans : separation and preparation of hematosin, &c.

  • Pillans, James.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of James Pillans : separation and preparation of hematosin, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/10 (page 5)
    Pillans Improvements in the Preparation of Hematosin, $c. few large pieces, or even not cut at all; but I prefer the first-named method, as giving a better result. When the clot is thus cut, the serum it contains begins to flow from it. At first, it is so highly colored by the hematosin that this portion must be set aside, so that it do not mix with the subsequent 5 portions, which would be otherwise injured. It is impossible to give any precise directions as to the quantity that must be thus set aside, as it varies in different animals even of the same species ; the eye alone, guided by lon^ practice, can decide when the serum has ceased to flow of too dark a colour. As soon as this occurs, the straining vessel containing the clot must be 10 lifted up and placed over another of similar shape, which may be called the depositing vessel, so that the serum which drains through the holes of the straining vessel shall fall into it, with which view it should be a trifle wider than the straining vessel, to prevent the serum dropping beyond it, and its sides may be either perpendicular or sloping inwards. The latter arrangement 15 is convenient, particularly when the straining vessel has been made compara¬ tively wide. The depositing vessel must have a hole pierced in its bottom, of about an inch in diameter, or other convenient size, which is to be stopped by a cork, a piece of vulcanized india-rubber, or other suitable substance; through this 20 substance is to be inserted a tube, of sufficient diameter to allow of the flow of the liquid through it, and which must be long enough to project about two inches, more or less, in the inside as well as on the outside of the vessel; it must fit accurately, but it must also admit of being moved up and down, and its upper orifice must be covered or plugged so long as the serum 25 is dropping to prevent its running through; in some cases it may be con¬ venient to have more than one hole fitted with the apparatus in question. An arrangement also very suitable is to have instead of the hole and tube a narrow moveable sluice, fitted accurately into the circumference of the depositing vessel at one or more points, and admitting of being gradually and 30 gently lowered. A third substitute would be a syphon, the orifice of whose shorter leg should project inside the depositing vessel, and admit of being gradually lowered; in fact, many analogous contrivances might be used. In each of the above and other similar arrangements, the gradual flow of liquid may be regulated by means of a float, or other self-acting apparatus. 35 Into a depositing vessel, as thus described, the serum is allowed to drain, till it appears that most of it readily obtainable from the clot has flowed out; the period required for this is usually ten to twenty hours (more or less in exceptional cases), depending on the temperature of the weather, and the facility with which the serum leaves the clot, which varies considerably.