On the changes the animal secretions undergo during cholera morbus / by Mr R. Hermann, of Moscow.

  • Hermann, R. (Rudolph), 1805-1879.
Date:
[1832?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the changes the animal secretions undergo during cholera morbus / by Mr R. Hermann, of Moscow. 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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    On the Changes the Animal Secretions undergo during Cholera Morbus. By Mr R. Hermann, of Moscow. From the Edinburgh Ktw Phifosopliical Journal for January 1832. We make the following extract of a paper by Mr R. Hermann of Moscow, upon the changes which the secretions of the human Ixxly undergo during cholera, from the 6th number of the An- naien der Physik und Chemie, 1831, as very few minute inves- tigations of this nature have been recorded in the many works on th* subject of cholera, which have been published in this and other countries; and it is of the highest importance that every information should be made public concerning the nature of the disease, which seems now without doubt to have gained an entrance into England. Having been commissioned by the constituted authorities at Moscow to institute chemical investigations into the nature of cholera, Mr Hermann made analyses of the blood, urine, and bile obtained from patients in different stages of the disease, as also of the vomited fluid and of the excrement. At the commencement of his analysis of the blood of a cholera patient, he was surprised by finding that the clot contained a free acid. This he at first conceived to be a peculiarity in the blood of cholera patients, but he very soon found that his own blood, at a time when he was in perfect health, possessed the same, or rather stronger, acid properties than that of the cholera patient. Aware that chemists in general describe the blood as alcaline, he was induced to make an analysis of healthy blood, with a view of ascertaining the nature and quantity of the free acid which it contains. Healthy Blood.—Mr Hermann’s own blood, allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, until it separated completely into serum and clot, contained 57 of serum and 43 of moist clot in 100 parts. He found that the serum of this blood slightly reddened litmus, but not so powerfully as the clot did ; and this he could not attribute simply to the colouring matter of the clot, as pure