COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE HEALTH SCIENCES STANDARD HX641 00898 QP99 .W87 1912 A study of the surfa v7oodward. A Study of the Surface Tension of Blood oerum by the Drop Weight Method. RECAP Columbia (Hnitersiftj) THE LIBRARIES ittcbical Hihtaxp Digitized by tlie Internet Archive in 2010 witli funding from Open Knowledge Commons (for the Medical Heritage Library project) http://www.archive.org/details/studyofsurfaceteOOwood A Study of the Surface Tension of Blood Serum by the Drop Weight Method DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIRE- MENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACULTY OF PURE SCIENCE IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK BY HAROLD E. WOODWARD, B. A. NEW YORK CITY 1912 WORCESTER, MASS. Charles W. Bukbamk & Co., Priater« A Study of the Surface Tension of Blood Serum by the Drop Weight Method DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIRE- MENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACULTY OF PURE SCIENCE IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK BY HAROLD E. WOODWARD, B. A. NEW YORK CITY 1912 WORCESTER, MASS. Charles W. Bureank & Co., Pr ACKNOWLEDGMENT This investigation was suggested by Professor J. L. R. Morgan, and carried out under his directions. I wish to express my appreciation of the assistance and en- couragement I have received from him. Professor W. J. Gies directed the experiments on dog serum, and I am very grateful to him for the interest he has taken in the work and the assistance he has given me. I am also deeply indetted to Dr. Bailey, Dr. Hopkins and Dr. Smith, of St. Lukes Hospital, for valuable ma- terial aid and advice, and to Dr. Butterfield and Dr. Bron- fenbrenner, of the Rockefeller Institute, and Dr. Warren, of Roosevelt Hospital. Harold E. Woodward. Laboratorv of Physical Chemistry, Havemeyer Hali,, Columbia University. CONTENTS Introduction and Object of the Investigation 5 Apparatus and Method 6 Dog Blood Serum 11 Human Serum 15 Comparison of Animal Sera 17 Meiostagmin Reaction 20 Summary 27 Vita 28 A Study of the Surface Tension of Blood Serum by the Drop Weight Method Ascoli and Izar* have shown that the immunizing reaction in pathological blood serum is accompanied by a lowering of the surface tension of the serum. They used Traube's stalagmometer, working at room temperature, and observed the change in the number of drops in a given volume of the serum after the immunity reaction had taken place. It stemd advisable to confirm this change, which they cald the Meiostagmin reaction, by the more accurate drop weight apparatus of Morgan t At the same time it was thought that an accurate study of the surface tension of normal and pathological blood serum might be valuable, and that there might be a normal value for the surface tension of the blood serum of all mammals. In mesuring surface tension by such methods as ca- pillary rise or the drop method (stalagmometer), the den- sity of the liquid must be used to change the height of the liquid in the capillary tube or the drop volume to surface tension. But since drop weights from any one tip are proportional to surface tensions, for any liquid and any temperature, it is only necessary to get the weight of the falling drop, thus avoiding the error and difSculty of determining densities. From drop weights then we have 7 = weight X constant This work, which is necessarily rather fragmentary, is divided into the following parts, — *Juhnke, Interstate Medical Journal, 18, 233, (Feb. igii) tMorgan, Jour. Amer. Chem. Sac. 32, 349 (191 1) 6 I Surface tension of blood serum. A — Dog serum; the condition of the dog being controld. B — Human serum, normal and pathological. C — Comparison of different animal sera. II The Meiostagmin reaction; the decrease in surface tension accompanying the union of antibody and antigen. APPARATUS AND METHOD The apparatus used is the same as described by Mor- gan.* For mesuring the drop weight of serum the appara- tus was allowd to remain in a constant temperature bath regulated at 37°C. (body temperature) for nearly half an hour, then a drop of the serum was puld over and left hanging for five minutes in order that the air in the weigh- ing vessel should be saturated with its vapor. This drop was then carefully forced back into the supply vessel, which containd about 5 cc. of serum, and a fresh drop was slowly puld over and allowd to fall of its own weight. The weighing vessel was then weighd as usual after con- densing the vapor in it by water at room temperature for one minute. Next a blank was run in the same way, ex- cept that the drop was not allowd to fall, and by sub- tracting this weight from the other the correct weight of one drop of the serum was obtaind. The determinations in the Meiostagmin reaction were made at o°C. as there is almost no evaporation at that temperature and in order that no reaction should go on in the solution during the determination. Five drops were taken and weighd, and no blanks were necessary. As in the work on water and solutions, the tip had to be cleand after each determination or the results would be *Loc. cit. too low. The cleaning was best done by alkalin perman- ganate solution followed by chromic acid in diluted sul- furic acid, then the tip was washt with distild water and dried by suction. Standardization of Tip One tip was standardized on benzene at 30°. The con- stant is found by means of a modified Ramsay and Shields (t)" equation, K = t7— t— 6 in which W^drop weight in milligrams, M^yS, d=. 86824, andt