Fibrin, its origin and development in the animal organism, and its relation to life, health, longevity, and disease / by John Goodman.

  • Goodman, J. F. B.
Date:
1878
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fibrin, its origin and development in the animal organism, and its relation to life, health, longevity, and disease / by John Goodman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    measure more than of a line, have compound organs. We do not, however, see any contradiction to the conclusions arrived at in this paper by such considerations as these. Were it true that fibrous filaments in the animal body are found more minute than even any corpuscular bodies rendered visible by the micro- scope, such a discovery would by no means overturn the fact, that the globule molecules, or atoms of fibrin in solution in the serum of the blood, must evidently be more minute than the fibrils themselves, since none of these molecules have ever be- come apparent under the microscope until aggregated together, and until they had assumed the solid form. To place this matter in a stronger light, we may remark that Dr. Quain, in the intro- duction to his Plates on the Nervous System (evincing the possession of nerves, or some equivalent arrangement, and even of various acts of volition by the most minute creatures, and thus declaring how infinitely minute must be the ultimate atoms of matter), adduces the fact of groups of living animalcule in a drop of water, under the microscope, making determinate efforts in eluding one another, in seizing their prey, &c. “ We cannot hesi- tate to admit,” he says, “ that they are susceptible of external impressions—i.e., are the subjects of sensation, and that they are capable of originating distinct acts of volition.” Dr. Grant, in his Lectures, speaks of the “ poriferous animals, which, by their ciliated gemmules, are endowed with remarkable living properties and powers of spontaneous motion. They have,” he declares, “an obvious object in their motions: they can accelerate, retard, or cease at pleasure the vibrations of their cilia: can change the direction of their course in the water, per- ceive each other’s vicinity, revolve round eacli other, &c., &c.; yet their gemmules contain no visible (nerve) fibre.” Prom such sketches as these of minute animal life, let the reader contemplate the exceeding delicacy of the nerve fibres which execute such movements; and next, the incalculable min- uteness of the molecules which serve for their construction; and lastly, the inconceivably small diameter of the atoms of which such molecules must be constituted. It might be contended, we think, without fear of successful contradiction, that the minute threads of fibrin observed in Plate III. were developed directly by the action of water upon the molecules independently of corpuscular aggregation. Molecules of albumen transformed into fibrin under the influence of water, forming in line, uniting together by the power of aggregation, and producing threads and filaments the most minute and delicate witnessed in nature, just in the same manner that we see effected by corpuscles them- selves under the microscope. By a combination of such threads or fibrils we should have the development of beautifully striated