Abstract
It was shown in a previous communication 1 that protein ingestion causes a decrease of the clotting time in man and dogs, while fat and carbohydrate have little influence. Further work 2 showed that these changes in clotting time are closely accompanied by changes in metabolism—as the metabolic rate increases the clotting time shortens. Ingestion of food with little or no specific dynamic action has practically no effect on the clotting time. Amino-acids have the same effect as proteins.
The question arose as to whether every increase in metabolic rate, no matter how produced, would shorten the clotting time; also whether the clotting time could be shortened without an accompanying increase in metabolism; and finally what caused the decreased clotting time. We suspected that the platelets were responsible, so their behavior was studied.
The experiments were carried out on one of us (C. A. M.) and on dogs. One dog was tracheotomized, the wound permitted to heal thoroughly and a Trendeenburg tampon-cannula used at the time of metabolism study. A Benedict-Knipping 3 closed circuit metabolism apparatus was employed for the determinations.
Blood was drawn from a vein with a paraffined needle and syringe and placed in a paraffined tube at 25° C. Every 2 minutes a sample of the blood was removed by a paraffined pipette and a smear quickly made on a glass slide. This smear was stained with
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