Defibrination

Defibrination of blood, the removal of fibrin that forms during blood clotting, is usually achieved by shaking freshly drawn blood with glass beads or whipping it with sticks (wooden, whalebone, etc.); one can also shake blood with a few drops of mercury. With such treatment, fibrin does not form a continuous network of fibers that captures all the formed elements, but separates into small, dense, elastic clumps that retain very few blood cells. After filtering these clumps through gauze or glass wool, one obtains a suspension of formed elements in serum, i.e., a system that differs from normal blood only in the absence of fibrinogen. In this form, blood can be used for transfusions, various analyses, experimental purposes, etc.