A Phytophysiological Examination of Hemophilic Blood.

Abstract

The senior author has already called attention to the usefulness of plant test-objects in studying certain blood conditions. Thus Macht and Lubin have by means of the seedlings of Lupinus albus been able to make an extensive study of menstrual blood and demonstrate its toxicity for plant protoplasm. 1 Macht has reported the marked effect of the serum from patients suffering with pernicious anemia when such serum was examined for its toxicity on seedlings, so that the method could and was actually used for differential diagnosis between primary leukemia on the one hand, and secondary anemia and leukemia on the other. 2 In the present communication the authors wish to report the phytopharmacological findings obtained in three cases of hemophilia. In the case of one of these (Y) they studied the serum of a patient whose blood had already been very carefully examined by Howell and Cekada. 3 These authors found that the prothrombin, fibrinogen, calcium and the anti-coagulants which exist in the circulating blood were quite normal. They came to the conclusion that the right explanation for the delayed clotting in hemophilia is to be found in the resistant properties of the blood-platelets.

In the present investigation the tests were made on the growth or elongation of the roots of young seedlings of Lupinus albus by methods described elsewhere. 4 Several experiments were made with the blood of each patient, and the results of all of them were very clear-cut as compared with normal blood serum.

Patient Y, 26 years old, was one of three brothers, all suffering from hemophilia, who have been carefully studied by Prof. Howell over a period of many years. The blood picture in this case was quite normal and there were no other complications. The clotting time in this case was 2½ hours.