206 Dr. Anderson on the state in which Fibrin exists in the Blood. 



maintains a gelatinous appearance, a state obviously owing to a vital 

 power of the fibrin in some way diminished. 



It remains for chemistry to tell whether the ultimate analysis of 

 such a buflfy crust differs from that of the more common kind ; but 

 from the difficulty of procuring material, it is probable the question 

 may remain long unsolved. 



But we have more : the red blood corpuscles have always a certain 

 mutual attraction, clinging closely in death to one another ; inflamma- 

 tion increases this, and likewise the quantity of fibrin and white cor. 

 puscles, and so the buffy coat is formed. But this takes place within 

 a very few minutes : the subsequent contractio^i of the clot, by which 

 the serum is squeezed from its interstices, is the work, not of the globules 

 hut of the fibrin ; hence we find in one case a clot much contracted, 

 though without a buff; in another buffy blood, of which the clot and 

 even the buff itself is loose and soft ; in still another the coagulum is 

 soft and presents no buff ; while there are also cases where the clot is 

 small and dense, as well as clothed with a firm leathery crust. 



The first occurs in sthenic states, where the fibrin is highly vitalised, 

 but no inflammation is present — in plethora for instance : the second, 

 where we have inflammation with an asthenic state of the system— as in 

 the postfebrile ophthalmitis: the third, where much debility exists, with- 

 out any local inflammation — as in fever: and the fourth, where, as in 

 sthenic acute inflammation, there is a local disease, and an active state 

 of the system besides. 



These differences point at some element of the doctrine of the pro- 

 perties of blood, which it will go hard if chemistry alone can explain. 



d-i 



Explanation of the Figures. 



Fig. 1. — ^Three white corpuscles (a, a, a,) are seen sticking to the glass in the field of 

 view, while the red corpuscles rush rapidly past. (Inflammatory blood before its death.) 



Fig. 2. — The coagulation of the bufly coat : a, the white corpuscles and molecules ; 

 by a few red corpuscles ; c, the striated coagulum, formed after the removal of the cor- 

 puscles ; (/, the clear space containing serum. 



