TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 159 



more nor less than a solution of albumen, and pos- 

 sessing, in common with all such solutions, much more 

 viscidity than any simply aqueous liquid. Lastly, 

 we have to notice the highly cohesive, self-solidi- 

 fying substance which gives to the healthy blood its 

 characteristic property of spontaneous coagulation. 

 And so great is the tendency of the particles of this 

 coagulating lymph to aggregate in masses, that 

 the unceasing motion of the blood, in addition to its 

 other important uses in the animal economy, is found 

 to be essential to the preservation of the fluidity of 

 the circulating mass. 



From this variety in the cohesiveness of these 

 three constituents of the liquor sanguinis, it is very 

 evident that different degrees of force will be re- 

 quired for the expulsion of each through the same 

 porous membrane. And even were there no col- 

 lateral facts to support the conclusion, I do think 

 that a common-sense view of the subject should 

 impress every unprejudiced mind with the conviction 

 that the effusion of one or other of these substances 

 through the invisibly minute pores of the capillary 

 membrane is, in every case, mainly regulated by the 

 amount of lateral pressure, or expelling force, ex- 

 isting in the columns of fluid blood contained within 

 those vessels. 



The grounds on which this conclusion rests may 

 be thus stated : 



1st. The impossibility of adducing any other ra- 

 tional physical explanation of the variety in the 

 results met with, both in my experiments, and in 

 cases of locally obstructed circulation in man and 



