Abstract
Miyamoto and Inagaki (1) discovered that a special fold figure is formed in a thin layer of serum by a special drying process, by placing a cover glass on the serum on the slide glass and heating it for 20 to 30 minutes in a desiccator at 120°-130°C. Later, . Ohbuchi (2) made a detailed study on this special fold figure on tuberculosis and classified these figures as forms A, B, C, D, and E, according to the condition of the disease. Isome (3, 4) compared the variation of these fold figures and the condition of the disease with the blood sedimentation rate, the viscosity, the globulin-albumin ratio of the serum, and other clinical observations, on malnutrition, pneumonia, and other diseases, and. pointed out that this variation of the fold figures is the barometer of the general condition of the patients. He added, moreover, a new form F, to Ohbuchi's 5 forms. However, no decisive conclusions have been reached regarding the mechanism of the fold. figure formation.
Miyamoto and Inagaki (5), by observing the structure of the fold figure, pointed out that the formation of the fold figure was due to the fact that the foams caused by the vapor and other gases, when the serum is heated in the capillary field between the slide and the cover-glass, took various forms according to the serum; and also pointed out that the viscosity and the surface activity of the serum were the two chief causes determining the form of the figure. Meguro (6) placed the serum under decreased pressure and after removing the various gases dissolved in it, tried this experiment. He thought that the formation of the vapor by heating the serum was due to the heating of air and other gases dissolved in the serum and pointed out that the number of the fold figures that are formed was controlled by the quantity of gases dissolved therein.
This fold figure is characteristic of the serum, as shown by Miyamoto and Inagaki. When they used other albumin solution or other viscid materials, the figures formed were different from those of the serum. But they succeeded in forming figures similar to that of the serum, by using an albumin solution to which other materials were added to give it the proper viscosity and surface activity. Miyamoto and Inagaki (5) observed a figure similar to that of the serum by mixing ovalbumin with sodium glycocholate, and explained that these fold figures might be controlled by a proper viscosity and surface activity.
In order to investigate the mechanism of the fold figure formation, I tried to see by expanding the experiments by Miyamoto and Inagaki, how the fold figure changes according to the viscosity and the surface activity of the gel.
