Serum

“ A _polyvalent_ serum, that is, one derived from an animal which has been immunised by numerous strains of the organism derived from various sources, is much more efficacious than when a single strain has been used. ”

“ With regard to the behavior of their serum and red blood-cells, all human beings fall into one of three groups. In the first group, the red cells are not agglutinable by any other human serum, while the serum is found to agglutinate the red cells of all persons not belonging to this first group. In the second group, the red cells are agglutinated by the serums of the first and of the third groups, while the serum agglutinates the cells of the third group only. ”

“ A serum specific for rabbit’s blood serum was therefore prepared, and the stains dissolved and tested as described above. No sign of precipitate was obtained within thirty minutes after applying the test and evidence was therefore given that the stain certainly did not consist of rabbits’ blood. On the other hand, [Pg 166] a serum made specific for human blood gave an immediate precipitate with the solution of the stain, which, therefore, in all probability consisted of human blood. ”

“ In all phases of human activity the serum seems to work wonders. “The cases are numerous in which the frigidity of both sexes have [sic] melted after Auto-Hemic treatment.” A young married woman with a morbid dislike for her husband took the serum and within a week “became normal.” ”

“ What this Serum could do upon the outward Skin, the more Volatile Parts of It would, without all doubt, Effect upon the more tender and sensible Membranes of the Stomach, if a considerable number of them were fixt there. The Fluids of Humane Bodies being Ranker and more abounding in active Salts than those of other Creatures, which are not continually repaired and nourish’d by the Juices of Animals. ”

“ Serum is also found, though in a smaller quantity, in those cases in which the anasarca has followed the local dropsy; for the disease of the viscus, which is the cause of the inflammation in the serous membrane of the cavity, may produce an adequate degree of the vascular excitement which gives rise to a discharge in the cellular tissue. Our author sums up his observations on this subject, by remarking, that there appear to be four distinct conditions of the system by which the occurrence of serum in the urine is regulated. [Pg 86]
"1. ”

“ The serum in [Pg 87] poor Fougas was dried up in his veins; the water which we have gradually introduced by a slow endosmose has saturated the albumen and fibrin of the serum, which is returned to the liquid state. The red globules which desiccation had agglutinated, had become motionless like ships stranded in shoal water. Now behold them afloat again: they thicken, swell, round out their edges, detach themselves from each other and prepare to circulate in their proper channels at the first impulse which shall be given them by the contractions of the heart. ”

“ And this goes on until you have left in the clot very little besides corpuscles entangled in a network of fibrin, and all the rest of the blood has been squeezed outside the clot, and is then called serum. Serum, then, is blood out of which the corpuscles have been strained by the process of clotting.
Now I dare say you are ready to ask the question, If blood clots so readily when it is shed, why does it not clot inside the body? Why is our blood ever{48} fluid? This is rather a difficult question to answer. When blood is shed from the warm body it soon gets cool. ”

“ Now add 300 c.c. clear blood-serum (vide page 168, sections 1 to 4) to every 100 c.c. of this bouillon.
4. Fill into sterile tubes and complete as for ordinary blood-serum.
Blood-serum (Lorrain Smith) .—
1. Collect blood-serum (vide page 168, sections 1 to 4) , as free from hæmoglobin as possible.
2. Weigh out 0.15 per cent. sodium hydrate and dissolve it in the fluid (or add 0.375 c.c. of dekanormal soda solution for every 100 c.c. of serum) .
3. Tube, and stiffen at 100° C. in the serum inspissator.
4. Incubate at 37° C. for forty-eight hours to eliminate any contaminated tubes. ”

“ In order that it may exert this power it requires the presence of a substance normally present in the serum known as “complement.” The development of these “anti-bodies,” though it has been studied mainly in connexion with bacteria and their toxins, is not confined to their action, but can be demonstrated in regard to many other substances, such as ferments, tissue cells, red corpuscles, &c. In some animals, for example, the blood serum has the power of dissolving the red corpuscles of an animal of different species ”

“ In the first periods of inflammations, in which the exhalants of the serous membranes are full of blood which is preternaturally introduced into them, the serum does not ooze in greater quantity from their free surface. Then as they are on the one hand very sensible, and very dry on the other, the motions of the organs that they cover are wonderfully painful. ”

“ Everything leads us to believe that the formation of globules in the blood is the last touch given by nature to that magical provision begun in thevegetable, continued in the stomach, and finished in the veins, to which, in combination with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, we are indebted for the subsistence of every portion of our body. Thus the blood-globules may be considered as albumen which has finished its education, and is ready to go into the world; while the albumen of the serum is, like our young friends, the generations in reserve, who are still at school awaiting their turn. ”

“ As is well known, blood serum possesses, as a rule, a bactericidal power upon most micro-organisms, and we have every reason to believe in the existence of specific substances in the serum which exert some influence upon the growth and development of micro-organisms, and also upon the toxic products they tend to elaborate. These protective substances—the alexins of Buchner—appear to be proteid in nature, resembling globulins, since they are precipitated from serum by the action of certain strong solutions of alkali salts, as sodium sulphate. ”

“ He tells us that—
“Soon after salivation has been established, the blood exhibits an inflammatory crust; at a later period its colour deepens, and its coagulability is diminished; the proportion of clot, and, therefore, of fibrin, to serum (or watery part) becomes smaller; the formation of albumen and mucus sinks to that of serum; the whole organic formation of the patient is less consistent and cohesive.” ”

“ Care must be taken to change the fluids so slowly that isolated cells will not be washed away.
1. Physiologic or Indifferent Fluids. Serous exudates, blood-serum, hydrocele fluid, etc.; artificial serum made by a mixture of 9 parts physiologic salt-solution with 1 part white of egg; or physiologic salt-solution (0.9 per cent for warm-blooded animals, 0.6 per cent for cold-blooded) .
2. Maceration Fluids. 33 per cent alcohol (24 hours) ; chromic acid 1:5000 (24 hours) ; potassium bichromate 0.1-0.2 per cent solution (2-4 days for nervous tissue) ; 0.1 per cent osmic acid (12-24 hours) ”

“ After the governing and operative Principles of the Blood have determined to the Skin the greatest Part of the Matter of this Disease, a considerable Portion is left behind, which mingling with the Serum, or watry Part of the Blood, is thrown off by Nature to relieve her Oppression into the Salival Glands, and other Strainers of the Mouth. ”

“ There are present in the blood, however, substances closely related to the peptones, maltose, glycerine, etc.; substances which have in fact been formed from them. During their transfer from the food canal, the dissolved nutrients undergo changes, giving rise to the materials in the blood. Thus are the serum albumin and serum globulin of the blood derived from the peptones and proteoses; the dextrose, from the maltose and other forms of sugar; and the fat droplets, from the glycerine, fatty acid, and soluble soap. ”

“ These may or may not show agglutination when the result of the examination of the 5 per cent. preparation is positive, according to the potency of the specific serum; and by the examination of a series of dilutions a quantitative comparison of the valency of specific sera from different sources, or of serum from the same animal at different periods during the course of active immunisation may be obtained. ”

“ A good field is selected, one containing many leucocytes, the number of germs counted in the first fifty or hundred observed, and an average per leucocyte determined. If the average in the mixture containing the normal serum is two, we would say that the normal opsonic index is two, and if the mixture containing the patient’s blood serum is one per corpuscle, we would say that his index was one-half, etc. ”

“ One variety enters largely into the composition of the animal fluids and solids, is coagulable by heat at and above 160°, and is composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, with a little sulphur. It abounds in the serum of the blood, the vitreous and crystalline humours of the eye, the fluid of dropsy, the substance called coagulable lymph, in nutritive matters, the juice of flesh, &c. ”

“ We have shewed before how the Mass of the Blood becomes impregnated with a saline Acrimony, more or less Acid, from a sharp and indigested Chyle, and the Powers of Digestion weakned and impaired; whence is easily explained how the Lymph and acrid Serum is communicated to the mucilaginous Glands, and the smallest Branches of the Arteries, so as to infect and coagulate the Mucilage, in Proportion to the Quantity of Salts they contain. ”

“ Of the organic compounds some contain nitrogen and some do not. The most important of the former are the proteins, which are found only in living bodies and consist of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur combined in very similar proportions. The important proteins in the body are the serum albumen and fibrin found in the blood, myosin in muscle, globulin in the red blood-corpuscles, and casein in the milk. ”

“ If there be any tests which have evaporated more than the others, they are rejected, if they show a positive reaction. It may sometimes happen that, for instance, the dialysate of the serum gives a negative reaction, while serum + organ shows a slight violet coloration. ”

“ Chemists all over the world have been able to resolve the flesh into proteids, the awesome proteids, as they are called. They form the principal solids of the muscular, nervous, and granular tissues, the serum of the blood and of lymph. ”

“ Serum Diagnosis—Wassermann Reaction.—Wassermann found that if an extract of syphilitic liver rich in spirochætes is mixed with the serum from a syphilitic patient, a large amount of complement is fixed. The application of the test is highly complicated and can only be carried out by an expert pathologist. ”

“ Evidence has been brought forward within recent years that the leucocytes may constitute an important source of the antagonistic substances which appear in the serum. Much of such evidence possesses considerable weight, and seeing that these cells possess active digestive powers it is by no means improbable that substances with corresponding properties may be set free by them. To ascribe such powers to them exclusively is, however, not justifiable. ”

“ We cannot judge of the quantity of cellular serum by observations made upon the dead body, in which the118 laxity of the parts permits a transudation of the fluids from all the vessels that pass through the cellular texture, and which then enter the cells. ”

“ The white corpuscles become entangled in the upper portion of clot, giving it a pale yellow look on the top, known as the buffy coat. As the clot is attached to the sides of the vessel, the shrinkage is more pronounced toward the center, and thus the surface of the clot is hollowed or cupped, as it is called. This remarkable process is known as coagulation, or the clotting of blood; and the liquid which separates from the clot is called serum. The serum is almost entirely free from corpuscles, these being entangled in the fibrin. ”

“ Absorption from the mucous membrane is increased by opium, and Peruvian bark, internally; and by blue vitriol externally. Hence the expectoration in coughs, and the mucous discharge from the urethra, are thickened and lessened.
3. Absorption from the cellular membrane is promoted by bitter vegetables, and by emetics, and cathartics. Hence matter is thickened and lessened in ulcers by opium and Peruvian bark; and serum is absorbed in anasarca by the operation of emetics and cathartics. ”

“ This test rests upon the principle that in the serum of an animal treated with human blood or albumin there are developed antibodies having a strong specific hæmolytic or precipitating action upon human blood or albumin. ”

“ The blood is a liquid, consisting of a plasma holding in solution serum albumen, serum globulin, fibrine-forming elements, sugar, urea, salts, and a variety of other soluble bodies, and floating a series of semi-solid organized bodies, the red and white globules. ”

“ Cool to 60° C. and clarify with egg as for nutrient agar (vide page 168) .
6. Filter through papier Chardin, using the hot-water funnel.
7. Tube, and sterilise as for nutrient agar.
(Leave the reaction unaltered.)
Serum Sugar Media (Hiss) .—
In these media the fermentation of carbohydrate substance by bacterial action is indicated by the coagulation of the serum proteids in addition to the production of an acid reaction.
Serum Dextrose Water (Hiss) .—
1. Measure out into a litre flask
2. Weigh out
and dissolve in the serum water. ”