Blood plasma

“ Blood Plasma.—The plasma is a solution in water of a varied number of substances, and as a solvent it confers on the blood its power of acting as a carrier of food stuffs and waste products. One important food substance, oxygen, is, however, only partly carried in solution, being mainly combined with haemoglobin in the red corpuscles. ”

“ DECH-MANNA COMPOSITION No. 1.
PLASMOGEN (PLASMA PRODUCER.)
Plasmogen—Blood-plasma producer. (The red and white blood-corpuscles are produced by using Eubiogen, XII) .
(a) . Blood-plasma, is the habitat of the red and white blood-corpuscles.
It can be readily understood that the more sanitary a place, the better will be the condition of those who live in it. Therefore, the plasma, (blood-plasma) , must first be made as perfect as possible in accordance with the teachings of science and especially of biology,—a theory which my own experience has proved to be correct. ”

“ Tested with nitric acid and ammonia, it is found to contain a protein substance which is called fibrin.
Blood plasma, then, is made up of a fluid portion of serum, and fibrin, which, although in a fluid state in the blood vessels within the body, coagulates when blood is removed from the blood vessels. This coagulation aids in making a blood clot. A clot is simply a mass of fibrin threads with a large number of corpuscles tangled within. The clotting of blood is of great physiological importance, for otherwise we might bleed to death even from a small wound. ”

“ Experiments with Old Blood Plasma and the Production of Blood Plasma and the Typhus Serum
Experiments with old blood plasma were conducted on inmates in Buchenwald by order of Mrugowsky at the request of the Military Medical Academy. Blood transfusions were carried out in order to determine whether old blood plasma could be used without danger, especially without danger of shock. Several series of experiments were performed, each with 10 to 20 experimental subjects. Some of the victims died, probably due to the combined effect of shock and poor physical condition. ”

“ The food stuffs carried by the plasma are proteins, carbohydrates, salts and water. The main waste products dissolved in it are ammonium carbonate, urea, urates, xanthin bases, creatin and small amounts of other nitrogenous bodies, carbonic acid as carbonates, other carbon compounds such as cholesterin, lecithin and a number of other substances. Thus, if we take mammalian blood as a type, the plasma would have the following approximate composition:—
Proteins.—The proteins of the blood plasma belong to the two classes of the albumins and the globulins. ”

“ Extensive observations made on wounded soldiers have shown that the number of red blood cells may rise even to 8,000,000 per cmm. in the capillary blood, while the number in the venous blood remains at 5,500,000 or less. This concentration of the red cells is gradual and progressive, and will by itself account for a large part of the loss of volume, since normally the bulk of the blood is made up of corpuscles and plasma in approximately equal parts. ”

“ The more widely the limits of these problems are extended, the more probable does it become that the experimental testing of all possibilities will put us on the proper road for an explanation of the phenomena observed. Surely it would be absurd to limit the study of anaphylaxy only to a study of the behaviour of the blood; for it is more than likely that it is the cells of the body which ultimately play the chief part in the appearance of anaphylaxy. The behaviour of the blood plasma is possibly only a reflection of the defensive measures adopted by the cells of the body ”

“ In spite of ceaseless changes, a uniformity of composition is one of the most striking features of the blood in health. This is maintained, as regards the constituents of the plasma, by the activity of the organs which regulate income and expenditure—the alimentary canal and liver on the one hand, and the kidneys, lungs, and skin on the other; while histological uniformity is maintained by the adenoid or cytogenous tissue throughout the body, the function of which is to replace the wornout blood-corpuscles. ”

“ The red blood corpuscles have consistently shewn themselves as almost exclusively concerned with variations in the specific gravity of the total blood; partly by variations in number, or changes in their distribution; partly by their chemical instability; loss of water and absorption of water, and variations in the amount of iron.
The plasma of the blood on the contrary—and there is no essential difference between plasma and serum (Hammerschlag) —is much more constant. ”

“ In cases where there has been considerable hemorrhage, whole blood must be administered. But even in these cases it is often wise to begin with plasma until time permits a more careful study of the patient.
There is probably no service which the civilian can render to the fighting forces so valuable as the gift of blood.
Before the raid on Pearl Harbor, both the Army and the Navy medical officers there thought that they had sufficient dried plasma on hand for any emergency. The Naval Hospital had 500 units. A unit of plasma is 250 cc. ”

“ It both carries new materials to all the tissues, and removes the worn out particles of matter. This is effected by the plasma. It both conveys oxygen and removes carbonic acid. This is done through the corpuscles. Some singular experiments have {106}been tried to illustrate the life-giving power of the blood. An animal that has bled so freely as to be at the point of dying, is promptly brought back to life by an operation called transfusion, by which fresh blood from a living animal is injected into the blood-vessels of his body. ”

“ Of the plasma about 10 per cent consists of solids and 90 per cent of water, as already stated.
Functions of the Blood.—The blood is the great carrying, or distributing, agent in the body. Through its movements (considered in the next chapter) it carries food and oxygen to the cells and waste materials from the cells. Much of the blood may, therefore, be regarded as freight in the process of transportation. The blood also carries, or distributes, heat. Taking up heat in the warm parts of the body, it gives it off at places having a lower temperature. ”

“ The elements of our tissues have their nutrition kept up by a constant movement of supply and withdrawal, new molecules replace the old ones, and acts of assimilation and disassimilation find by turns in the plasma their point of origin and completion. The blood-globule is nourished just as the constituent parts of the glands, the muscles, the nerves, and the brain are, and the only difference to be noted in this respect is that the process takes place within the very plasma itself, while the other elements are parted from it by the thin membrane of the capillary vessels. ”

“ The total volume of blood in an animal has been increased among other ways by the transfusion of the blood of one animal directly into the veins of a second of the same species. It is found that within a very short time a large percentage of the plasma has been discharged from the blood-vessels. It has been sent into the tissues, notably the muscles, and it may be noted in passing without producing any increase in the lymph-flow from these vessels. ”

“ Worm-Müller16 and Cohnheim17 have made some very interesting experiments on this question of plethora. By transfusion in dogs a state of artificial plethora is readily established, and the animals stand the injection of as much as 10 or 12 per cent. of the body-weight of blood, above which quantity a fatal result ensues. After an injection of 20 or 30 per cent. of the total amount of blood, the superfluous plasma and corpuscles are got rid of in a few days, while with a larger injection of 60 to 80 per cent. ”

“ The blood-globule not only lives its individual life within the plasma, but it needs, in order to complete its function of vivifying every part of the body, to absorb oxygen from the air, and it then takes that bright vermilion color which is characteristic. ”

“ A vicious circle is thus established, and the symptoms of shock become severe as the capillary stagnation becomes more pronounced.
A second factor which may also play its part in the loss of blood volume in the general circulation is the exudation of some of the plasma into the surrounding tissue spaces. As the stagnation increases, oxygenation decreases, and the walls and the capillaries become more permeable, so that some fluid is probably lost in this way. ”

“ As a matter of fact it has been found possible to demonstrate, by means of intravenous introduction of large quantities of proteins and peptones, after the animals have been prepared by previous injections, that, when the blood is withdrawn immediately, not only has an alteration taken place in the original rotation of the plasma, to which nothing has been added, but also that peptones may be found in the outer fluid in the dialysation test. ”

“ The hematocrit is not to be recommended for accuracy, since in anemia, where blood counts are most important, the red cells vary greatly in size and probably also in elasticity. [p. 151] The hematocrit is, however, useful in determining the relative volume of corpuscles and plasma, and seems to be gaining in favor.
The Thoma-Zeiss instrument consists of two pipets for diluting the blood and a counting chamber (Fig. 69) . The counting chamber is a glass slide with a square platform in the middle. ”

“ The study of the permeability to various substances of what we may perhaps consider as the most simply organized cells in the whole body, the colored corpuscles of the blood, promises to throw a flood of light on absorption in general. It has been lately shown that they are practically non-conductors of electricity in comparison with the liquid portion of the blood, or plasma, in which they float. This is due to the fact that the salts of the plasma, whose ions carry the electricity, penetrate the corpuscles with difficulty, sodium chloride, for example, scarcely passing into them at all. ”

“ The figures so obtained for the dried substance have a certain independent importance; for they do not run quite parallel with those of the specific gravity, amount of hæmoglobin or number of corpuscles. The normal values are, for men 21.26%, for women 19.8%.
A further procedure for obtaining indirect evidence of the amount of hæmoglobin is the determination of the volume of blood corpuscles in 100 parts of total blood. For this estimation a method is desirable, which allows of the separation of the corpuscles from plasma in blood, that is as far as possible unaltered. ”

“ The liquor sanguinis constitutes fully 66 per cent. of the volume of the blood. It is albuminous in nature and contains a small amount of coloring matter of a fatty nature. It holds in solution three proteids—fibrinogen, serum globulin, and serum albumin.
Second, the organized parts, or the cellular structure (Fig. 74, Nos. 1 to 21) . The cells float in the plasma and consist of three groups: the erythrocytes, or red blood cells, the leucocytes, or white blood cells, and the thrombocytes. ”

“ Exposed to atmospheric air, it takes a dark-red color, while continuing crimson in the arteries. Deep in the tissues, the oxygen of the globule is disengaged; combustion occurs with production of heat, but without flame, as is the case with starch; the blood becomes venous and darkish; then, sent back to the vessels of the lungs, it resumes its arterial coloring with the vital air.
In connection with the history of transfusion it is important to know the quantity of blood contained in the organism ”

“ When freighted with oxygen it becomes oxyhaemoglobin and is red in color; when freed from its oxygen it takes a purple hue; hence the widely different appearance of arterial and venous blood, which so puzzled the early physiologists.
This proof of the vitally important role played by the red-blood corpuscles led, naturally, to renewed studies of these infinitesimal bodies. It was found that they may vary greatly in number at different periods in the life of the same individual, proving that they may be both developed and destroyed in the adult organism. ”

“ In all cases in which the albuminous metabolism is very rapid, in cases of disease which are accompanied by decay of the tissues, as in the case of carcinoma, in cases of absorption of exudates and transudates, in all purulent processes, and lastly, in effusions of blood, the blood always contains a larger quantity of such compounds. The blood serum must further be absolutely free from hæmoglobin, and in doubtful cases the spectroscope should be used. ”

“ The oxygen which passes into the capillaries combines chemically with the carbon it finds in the blood, which carbon is a product of the digested food, and as a result of this combination heat is given off. The venous blood which comes to the lungs is not in a condition to nourish the tissues, but the purified bright red blood is ready to perform that duty, and is carried by the pulmonary veins to the left side of the heart. This part of the circulation, by which the blood is purified, has been called the lesser circulation. ”

“ They give the blood its red color. They are cells which have been highly differentiated for the purpose of carrying oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. This is accomplished by means of an iron-bearing proteid, hemoglobin, which they contain. In the lungs hemoglobin forms a loose combination with oxygen, which it readily gives up when it reaches the tissues. Normal erythrocytes do not contain nuclei. They are formed from preëxisting nucleated cells in the bone-marrow.
White corpuscles, or leukocytes, are less highly differentiated cells. ”