HISTOLOGIC AND CHEMICAL ASPECTS OF THROMBUS FORMATION

REGARDLESS of the methods preferred in the treatment of venous thrombosis, the physiologic events in the process of thrombus formation must guide the physician in his therapeutic considerations. What is called a vascular thrombus today was considered an outgrowth of the vascular wall by anatomists until the middle of the past century. Rudolf Virchow¹ was the first one to recognize these "outgrowths" as blood clots. He also described the mechanism of embolism, and his concept of thromboembolic disease is fundamentally as dominant now as it was one hundred years ago. Among the many papers which have appeared since Virchow's classic work, a few can be listed as contributing substantially to a better understanding of thromboembolic disease. Glénard² and von Baumgarten³ showed independently that blood does not clot, even if kept stagnant for days between ligatures applied to a vein, as long as the vascular lining remains