432 Dr. John Mutter's Examination of [June 



Caustic ammonia throws down albumen from the liquor 

 of the blood, and also from the solution of the white of an 

 egg. Caustic potash does not precipitate albumen from 

 the egg, whereas the liquor of the blood will always be 

 acted upon when small quantities of serum are added to 

 large portions of caustic potash . In milk also the coagulable 

 constituents are thrown down by a quantity of caustic pot- 

 ash, and the same circumstance occurs with regard to chyle, 

 although milk is very different in its characters from chyle. 



According to Tiedemann and Gmelin, and also Miiller, 

 the albumen of the egg is coagulated by ether, but that of 

 the serum is not altered. The fibrine dissolved in the serum 

 is easily distinguished from the albumen, in the same fluid, 

 because the former coagulates of itself, while the albumen 

 is only rendered solid by re-agents, by a particular tempera- 

 ture, and by the galvanic battery ; and farther, according 

 to Miiller, ether coagulates the fibrine of fresh blood, but 

 not the albumen. 



Prevost and Dumas have endeavoured to estimate the 

 quantity of the globules of the blood of different animals 

 separately from red coagulum. Berzelius has observed, 

 however, that these experiments cannot be very accurate ; 

 because the coagulum retains a quantity of serum, which, 

 by drying, will be deficient in albumen and salts, while the 

 washings will contain not only serum but also a portion of 

 the red constituents of the blood. 



Berzelius says that when blood is kept for several days, 

 the red globules sink, and the serum sometimes becomes 

 reddish, in consequence of a small portion of the colouring 

 matter being dissolved. The experiments of Muller decid- 

 edly contradict this statement ; for he has examined with 

 two different powerful microscopes the blood of the calf, 

 of oxen, of man, and the cat, and as long as water was 

 prevented from coming in contact with the blood he could 

 not observe the slightest alteration in the form and size of 

 the globules. 



In the blood drawn from man and cats the globules sank 

 in 12 hours 5 or 6 lines below the surface of the serum. 



The globules of the blood in the frog sink rapidly to the 

 bottom of the vessel. Muller, in making some quantitative 

 experiments on the blood of the ox, obtained from 3627 grs. 



