The influence of Witte's "peptone" and of digestion of blood platelets and plasma

Experiments have been described to the Society Which show that the anti-coagulant action of Witte's "peptone" may be as great on sbed blood as on circulating blood, it the blood is drawn through a paraffined cannula into a paraffined vessel. It was also recorded that a moderate concentration of "peptone" (0·3 per cent.) does not suppress the clotting of blood which has remained in contact with glass for 2 or 3 minutes, although this amount of the anticoagulant suffices for the prolonged inhibition of clotting when either injected intravenously or added to blood in paraffined vessels. From these observations it was concluded that the anticoagulant action of "peptone" can be exerted without stimulating a secretion of antithrombin, either in the liver or vascular endothelium. It was also suggested that "peptone" reacts with plasma and temporarily stabilises that fluid (pickering and Hewitt, 1, 2). In a recent review of this work, Nolf (3) admits the coagulant action of "peptone" on shed blood, but maintains that it is fundamentally different from that produced when "peptone" is injected into the blood stream. Several facts are inconsistent with this conclusion, Blood withdrawn after the intravascular injection of "peptone" exhibits the following characteristics: It is coagulated by the passage of a stream of carbon dioxide, by acidification, by dilution with distilled water, by the addition of chemically inert powders and by filtration through a clay cell (Fano (4), Wooldridge (5), Gratia (6)). All these characteristics are exhibited by bloods or plasmas which have been kept fluid by the addition of small amounts of "peptone" after shedding (Pickering (7)).