Minute Anatomy of Animals. — No. IV. 245 



most abundant when putrefaction is just commenced, may be 

 infusory productions. They occur in fibrine from the healthy 

 blood of man and other animals, as well as in fibrinous ex- 

 udations resulting from inflammation. In my first observa- 

 tions, some of the filaments seemed as if jointed, but this 

 appearance was not seen afterwards. Mr. Dalrymple, who 

 examined them at my request, remarked that they appeared 

 like fine tubes containing round particles, and that the fila- 

 ments were similar in form to some of the Vibrionia of Ehren- 

 berg. But we could never see any motion in the filaments. 



As I propose on a future occasion to give a short historical 

 notice of the observations of authors on the structure of fibrine, 

 I shall merely allude here to this branch of the subject. The 

 fibrinous products of inflammation have commonly been de- 

 scribed as exudations from the blood. Thus J. Hunter, who 

 mentions the toughness and elasticity of coagulating lymph, 

 as well as its fibrous and laminated appearance, says that the 

 swelling in inflammation is owing to the extravasation of this 

 lymph and some serum. Blumenbach's views are of the same 

 kind. Dr. Hodgkin speaks of the products of inflammation 

 of the serous membranes as effusions ; and Dr. Alison of 

 " inflammatory effusions, especially that of pus." Dr. Davy 

 particularly describes the viscidity of coagulated lymph as it 

 passes from the fluid to the solid state, in explanation of the 

 formation of the fibres and bands of the common adhesions 

 of the lungs ; this property of fibrine I think has not been 

 noticed by any other author, though it is important, and may 

 most easily be demonstrated. M. Magendie* has given an 

 admirable account, from microscopic observation, of the cel- 

 lular, laminated, and filamentous structure of fibrine, which 

 he says is to be found again in the coagulum that obliterates 

 blood-vessels, as well as in the formation of adhesions and 

 false membranes ; and Dr. Addison, in an interesting paper 

 lately published (Prov. Med. and Surg. Journal, August 20, 

 1842), concludes from his observations, that "all abnormal 

 products are effusions and not secretions." 



Mr. Gerber (Gen. Anat., figs. 16-18) has delineated what 

 he terms the first, second, and complete stages of fibrillation 

 in the progress of organization in the fibrine composing co- 

 agulable lymph; but he does not say how much his drawings 

 are magnified, though in some of them a very low power must 

 have been employed. Others are sufficiently enlarged to show 

 the cells from which he says the fibres are formed ; and this 

 is precisely the point in which my observations are at issue 



* See Mr. Ancell's Lectures on the Blood, Lancet 1839-40, vol. i. 

 p. 459; and those of M. Magendie in the same journal, 1838-39, vol. i. 

 p. 255. 



