33 



other, and only then, are drawn out almost to a fibre ; and yet the 

 instant the adhesion is broken, the detached particles, now solitary, 

 recover their circular outline. This viscid property of the blood cor- 

 puscles appears to be distinct from that of coagulable lymph ; lymph 

 being viscid, not in its liquid state, when it attenuates even the serum, 

 but in its transition state, just before and when in the act of coagu- 

 lating. 



The third subject treated of, is the tendency of fibrin in coagu- 

 lating to a certain arrangement of its particles. In proof of this, he 

 adduces the instance of the investing pellicle or membrane of the 

 buffy-coat ; the tubes of the fibrin formed as a cast, when blood is 

 stirred with a rod in the act of coagulating. The cyst-like cavities 

 occasionally met with in fibrinous concretions, whether filled with 

 the serum or puruloid fluid, found after death in the heart and great 

 vessels ; — in all which a kind of nisus formativus is displayed, and 

 an arrangement more or less regular ; and which may be applicable, 

 he believes, to account for the cysts of aneurisms speedily following 

 punctured wounds of arteries, and for the sacs of false aneurisms, 

 continuous with, and hardly to be distinguished from, the lining 

 membrane of the vessel. 



The last subject ti'eated of, is the effect of sei'um in promoting the 

 coagulation of milk — a property which serum possesses in common 

 with the white and yolk of the egg, on the application of heat. The 

 results of trials of mixtures of serum and milk in different propor- 

 tions are stated, from which it appears, that 1 part of the former 

 heated with 5 of the latter, will occasion its coagulation, and even 

 when mixed with a third more. From analogy, the author infers, 

 that serum and white of egg may have a like effect on vegetable 

 juices containing albuminous matter similar to casein. The action 

 of one animal fluid, and those .«o like as serum and milk, he refers 

 to as a curious subject for speculation, and as deserving of attention, 

 not only in relation to culinary and some manufacturing processes ; 

 but also, it may be, in connexion with physiology, and perhaps 

 pathology. 



3. The Secretary then gave an account of some of Mr Bain's 

 applications of Electricity, as a moving power to 

 Clocks. 



