530 OF ABSORPTION AND SANGUIFICATION. 



portion of the contents of the vessels, will be the result. This has been fully 

 proved by the numerous experiments of Magendie ; and the fact is one of very 

 important Pathological applications ( 707, />). But the vital properties of the 

 fluid are still more immediately dependent upon the Fibrine it contains ; since, 

 as we have seen reason to believe, it is the material which is most completely 

 prepared for organization, and which supplies what is requisite for the nutri- 

 tion of the larger proportion of the solid tissues of the body. It is, therefore, 

 continually being withdrawn from the blood by the nutritive operations; and 

 the demand appears to be supplied, in part by the influx of Fibrine that has 

 been prepared in the Absorbent system, and in part by the continued trans- 

 formation of Albumen, which takes place during the circulation of the Blood, 

 and of which we have seen reason to believe that the Colourless Corpuscles 

 are the instruments ( 153 159). The Albumen of the Blood is the raw 

 material, at the expense of which not only the Fibrine, but many other sub- 

 stances, are generated during the nutritive process. All the Albuminous com- 

 pounds of the Secretions, the Horny matter of the Epidermic tissues, the 

 Gelatine of the simple Fibrous tissues, and the Haematine of *the Red Cor- 

 puscles, may be regarded as almost certainly produced by the transformation 

 of the Albumen of the Blood ; and a continual supply of this from the food 

 is therefore requisite to preserve the due proportion in the circulating fluid. 

 The Red Corpuscles appear to be more connected with the function of Respira- 

 tion than with that of Nutrition ( 150); and the stimulating action of Arterial 

 blood, especially upon the Nervous and Muscular tissues, appears to depend 

 upon their presence. It is by no means impossible that their peculiar con- 

 nection with the activity of the latter may be dependent upon an actual 

 Chemical relation between their contents and the red matter of the Ganglionic 

 corpuscles ( 245) ; and that a part of their function may be, to prepare the 

 substance which is afterwards to be appropriated as a peculiar nutritive prin- 

 ciple, by the active instruments of Nervous operations. It appears from the 

 experiments of Dieffenbach on transfusion, that the Red Corpuscles are more 

 effectual as stimuli to the Heart's action, than is any other constituent of the 

 blood. The rapidity with which they may be decomposed and reconstituted, 

 is made remarkably evident by the experiments of Magendie; who found that, 

 when the Blood of one animal was injected into the veins of another having 

 discs of very different size and form (care being taken to prevent the coagula- 

 tion of the Fibrine during the operation), the original Red particles soon dis- 

 appeared, and were replaced by those characteristic of the species, in whose 

 veins the fluid was circulating. The use of the Saline matter is evidently in 

 part to supply the mineral materials, requisite for the generation of the tissues, 

 and for the production of the various secretions. It is by the Saline and 

 Albuminous matters in conjunction, that the specific gravity of the Liquor 

 Sanguinis is kept up to the point, at which it is equivalent to that of the con- 

 tents of the Red corpuscles; and it is only in this condition that the latter 

 present their proper characters. Thus it has been shown by Dr. G. O. Rees, 

 that when the quantity of water in the Liquor Sanguinis has been reduced by 

 copious perspirations or othor similar causes, the corpuscles are thin, and very 

 like those whose contents have exuded by exosmose into a denser liquid 

 around ( 1-13). On tho other hand, if the Liquor Sanguinis be diluted by the 

 withdrawal of blood and the injection of an equivalent quantity of water, the 

 serum speedily becomes tinged with the colouring matter of the corpuscles; 

 apparently in consequence of a rupture of some of the cells, by endosmose 

 from the circumambient liquid, now reduced to a lower specific gravity than 

 that of their contents. The Fatty matters of the Blood are evidently derived 

 from the food, either directly, or by the transformation of its farinaceous in- 

 gredients ; and they are chiefly appropriated to the maintenance of the coin- 



