Abstract
PROF. MANTEGAZZA cuts the Gordian knot of the cause of the coagulation of the blood, by attributing it to an action of the white corpuscles of the blood. Admitting Schmidt's theory of fibrin being the product of fibrinoplastin and fibrinogen, he puts forward the idea that normal plasma of the blood contains fibrinogen only, but that the white corpuscles have the power, when irritated, of emitting, or we might almost say secreting, fibrinoplastin, and thus of causing coagulation. The shedding of blood, any contact with foreign substances, are causes of irritation to the white blood corpuscles, and hence, these things become in turn causes of coagulation. In support of this theory he insists on the complete coincidence of the power of coagulation with the presence of white blood (or lymph) corpuscles; and on the fibrinoplastic properties of tissues, such as cornea, &c., which abound in cells similar at least in nature to white blood corpuscles.—(Ann. di Chim., July 1869.)
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Physiology: Coagulation of Blood. Nature 1, 117 (1869). https://doi.org/10.1038/001117a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001117a0