Changes of the blood in disease / translated from the French of M. Gibert by John H. Dix.

  • Gibert, C.-M. (Camille Melchior), 1797-1866.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Changes of the blood in disease / translated from the French of M. Gibert by John H. Dix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    (Leuvvenhoeck,) to the nineteenth, (Raspail, Donne, Miiller and Mandl). We have said that these globules which contain the colouring matter are only suspended in the blood, and we have admitted, contrary to the opinion of almost all experimenters from Leuwenhoeck down to Lecanu, that these globules are distinct from the fibrine, which is to be considered as in a state of solution. Such is the opinion of Miiller, adopted by M. Donne.1 Senac (Traite du cceur. Paris, 1749. t. ii.) remarks that the circular globules of the blood are not spherical, but lenticular. According to him the globules become smaller in ihe scorbutic. Fonlana, (Poison of the viper. Florence, 17S1,) says that the globules of the mammifera approach the globular form. Spallanzani, (Dell' azioni del cuore ne vasi sangui. Modena, 1768,) observed in salamanders globules of two forms, oblong and round. Hewson, (Philos. trans. 1778, p. 303,) recognises the globules of the mammifera as lenticular. He admits an envelope and a nucleus; and that the globules are soluble in water, but not in serum, because of the salts it contains. Prevost and Dumas (Bibl. univ. de Geneve, 1821, t. xvii.) adopt the opinions of Hewson. Raspail, (Repert. d'anatomie, t. iv. 1827. Organic Chemistry, 1838,) asserts that the globules of the blood must be considered as albumen originally dissolved in the serum, and afterwards precipitated from this menstruum. 'I owe to the kindness of Dr. Donne the following note, here inserted verbatim, although the rapidity of the redaction has a little injured the methodical order. The blood must be considered as a liquid holding in solution albumen, several salts, and a peculiar characteristic principle, azotised. the fibrine, and in suspension solid particles of a complex structure; this theory results from the following experiment of Professor Miiller, of Berlin. By filtration of the blood of a frog, the globules of which are so large that they do not traverse the paper, the liquid portion is separated colourless, in which we soon observe to be formed a clot of fibrine not coloured, the globules being retained by the filter. The clot is not then formed, as was formerly sup- posed, and as the theories of Prevost and Dumas support, by the globules; the fibrine is an element distinct from the globules; as is also proved, when the fibrine is separated from the blood by beating the latter with rods, for then all the globules are found intact in the coloured liquid. The weight of the globules must therefore necessarily be deducted from all calculations, in which the proportion of the elements is appreciated by the old theory of Prevost and Dumas, now adopted by Lecanu. Finally, the clot is formed by the spontaneous coagulation of the fibrine, as soon as it is freed from the vital action, and by imprisoning the globules in its meshes, like a sponge; this fact of the coagulation of the fibrine is inexplicable by the actual laws of physics and chemistry. . The buffy coat is nothing but fibrine deprived of its globules; its forma- tion is explained by admitting some cause to retard the coagulation, and afford the red globules time to be precipitated, and leave upon the surface a layer of colourless coagulable liquid. Blood possessed of this property does actually coagulate less rapidly than that which produces no buff. The pro- per blood-globules are red, circular, fiat (lenticular), with an obscure point in their centre in the mammifera; the only exception is a species nearly allied to the chamois, the alpaka (Mandl); in the three other classes, the globules are elliptical and always flat; the latter evidently contain a small solid nucleus which may be separated from the envelope; this nucleus has