232 Dr. Buchanan on the White or Opaque Serum of the Blood. 



part ascended to the surface like cream. The other was killed forty- 

 eight hours after eating, when its stomach was found empty, and the 

 serum of its blood quite transparent, and without any cream rising to 

 the surface, or any appearance of small globules, when examined by 

 the microscope." The obvious conclusion from this experiment seems 

 to be, that the one goose was killed while the digestion in the blood- 

 vessels was in progress ; but the second not till long after it was com- 

 pleted: whence the milkiness of the serum in the former case, and its 

 transparency in the latter. But instead of drawing this inference, 

 Hewson will have it, that " the whiteness of the serum was occasioned 

 by the fat being re-absorbed faster that it was used, (from its place 

 being supplied by the fresh chyle,) and thence was accumulated in the 

 blood vessels, so as to give whiteness to the serum." 



If these views be correct, it is clear that a milky state of the serum 

 of the blood is a phenomenon of the healthy body, and cannot in itself 

 be regarded as a symptom of disease. There are, nevertheless, certain 

 circumstances in which this appearance may serve to indicate the 

 existence of disease, as when it continues during a longer period than 

 according to the laws of health it ought to do. A case is mentioned 

 above, in which, after eighteen- hours fasting, the serum of the blood 

 was still loaded with white particles. The only inference that could 

 be drawn from this fact, was, that the individual had taken a more 

 than usually large quantity of food, and that the digestion in the 

 blood-vessels was protracted in proportion. Perhaps it would Dot 

 be warrantable to deduce any other inference, even were the milkiness 

 to continue for twenty-four or thirty-six hours after a full meal. But 

 when this milkiness continues for several days, although the appetite 

 is gone and no fresh supply of food taken, it then becomes probable 

 that the digestion in the blood-vessels is no longer going on, as in the 

 healthy state ; being like all other functions of the body, subject to re- 

 tardation and derangement from the condition of the organs by which 

 it is performed. Thus Morgagni found the serum white in the blood 

 of two patients labouring under fevers ; of which he describes the one 

 as malignant and attended with much danger, and the other as 

 verging to malignity. In the former, the whiteness was observed 

 in blood taken by the three last of four venesections which were 

 required ; and in the latter, in blood taken on the third, and again on 

 the fifth day of the disease.* Hewson states on the authority of a 

 contemporary, that ** a publican, of about thirty-five years of age, and 

 corpulent, had been subject to a bleeding at the nose, to the piles, 

 and to such profuse sweats in the night, as to be frequently obliged 

 to change his shirt in the morning before he got out of bed, but 

 that for some time past, his sweats had ceased. That on September 

 the 23d, he was seized with a bleeding at his nose, which had been 



* Morg. Epist. 4.9, Art. 22. 



