264 OF THE BLOOD: 



proportions, the fibrin having been found in amounts varying from 2.5 to 

 11.53 parts iu 1000, and coagulation having been noticed to recur when the 

 blood had already been freed from the fibrin by whipping. Hirt 1 counted 1 

 colorless to 2179 colored corpuscles in the blood of the splenic artery, but 1 

 colorless to 60 colored in that of the splenic vein. The red corpuscles some- 

 times present crystals in their interior. Many comparative observations 

 have been made upon the blood of the Vena Portfe and of the Hepatic vein; 

 but a large part of them, according to M. Cl. Bernard, are vitiated by the 

 fact, that, unless the vena portre be tied, a reflux of blood takes place into 

 it from the liver, so that the blood which flows when it is wounded, is not so 

 much portal as hepatic blood. The latter, like all blood which contains 

 much carbonic acid and little oxygen, coagulates slowly and forms a bulky 

 clot from which the serum imperfectly separates. It contains 8 or 9 per 

 cent, less water than the portal blood, owing apparently to the red corpuscles 

 taking up solid materials in their passage through the liver. The blood of 

 the hepatic vein is far richer in blood-cells, both colored and colorless, than 

 that of the portal vein ; Hirt estimated that the proportion of the colorless 

 to the red corpuscles was in the portal venous blood as 1 : 524, in the hepatic 

 as 1 : 136 ; the colored are seen in heaps of a distinct violet color, and they 

 are less readily destroyed by water than are those of the blood of most other 

 vessels. The corpuscles in the blood of the hepatic veins are poorer in fat 

 and in salts, and especially in hsematin, or at least iron, but somewhat richer 

 in extractive matters. Their specific gravity is higher than that of the cor- 

 puscles of the portal blood, notwithstanding the diminished quantity of iron. 

 The plasma of the blood of the hepatic veins is far denser than that of the 

 blood of the portal vein, for it contains a much larger amount of solid con- 

 stituents generally, although little or no fibrin is to be fouud in it. If we 

 compare the solid constituents of the serum of both kinds of blood, we find 

 less albumen and fat, and far less salts, in the blood of the hepatic vein, 

 while the quantity of extractive matter, and especially of sugar, unless the 

 examination be made instantaneously after death, is perceptibly augmented. 2 

 It cannot be doubted that when the secretion of urine is proceeding with 

 rapidity, the blood of the Renal vein must contain a smaller proportion of 

 water than that of the renal artery, and that the quantity of salines also 

 must be diminished ; since a separation of these ingredients takes place in 

 the passage of the blood through the renal capillaries. So far as regards 

 the quantity of water, this a priori conclusion has been confirmed by the 

 analyses of Simon, who fouud 790 parts of water in 1000 of blood drawn 

 from the renal artery, and only 778 in blood drawn from the renal vein of 

 the same animal. 3 And Picard 4 found in the renal arterial blood of two 

 dogs 0.0365 and 0.04 per cent, of Urea, whilst in the venous blood returning 

 from the kidneys the proportion was 0.0186 and 0.02 per cent. Poisseuille 

 and Gobley, 5 however, did not find the difference so well marked or con- 

 stant. 



198. Alterations in the Composition of the Blood in Disease. Under this 

 head it is intended here to consider, not the state of the Blood iu every 

 principal type of disease (which it is the duty of the Pathologist to investi- 

 gate 1 ), but the most important facts which the study of its morbid conditions 

 has afforded, towards the determination of the conditions under which de- 



1 Million's Archiv, lsr,6. 



2 Physiological Chemistry (Cavendish Society's od.)- vol. ii, p. 25!); Lehmann, 

 Leip/.i^er Berichte, iii, \%l] mid I'harmaeeiit. Central blatt, 1850, p. 433. 



3 Simon's Animal Chemistry (Sydonham Society's ed.), vol. i, p. 214. 



4 1'irard, Sur hi Presence' de 1'Uree dans Ic Sang, Strasbourg, 18-36. 

 6 Compte.- Keiidus, 1859, p. 104. 



