On the Action of the Blood. 119 



Scrum. Blood. 



Water. Album. Waler. Particles. Alburn. 



Arterial blood from the carotid 915 85 8293 935 772 

 Venous from the jugular 915 85 8364 861 775 



Those of the dog and of the cat present differences in the same 

 direction. .10,000 of arterial blood usually contain 100 of glo- 

 bules, beyond what venous blood does. They took care in these 

 analyses, always to draw off the venous blood before the arterial, 

 lest the venous absorption, if it occurred, might come to favour the 

 relation, whose existence they have here indicated. The following 

 are the general conclusions drawn from their memoir. 



1. That the arterial blood contains more particles (corpuscles) 

 than the venous blood. . 



2. That birds are the animals whose blood is richest in corpuscles. 



3. That the mammifera come next ; and it would appear that 

 the carnivoru have more of them, than the herbivora. 



4. That cold-blooded animals possess the fewest. 



Lastly, a direct proof is obtained in their experiments, of venous 

 absorption, after blood-letting. Thus, a robust cat in good health 

 was powerfully blooded from the carotid ; the blood afforded 



Serum. Blood. 



Water. Album. Water. Part. Album. 



900 100 7938 1184 878 

 After 2 minutes, blood of jugular, 916 84 8092 1163 745 

 Idem, after 5 minutes ... 915 85 8293 935 772 



Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xxiii. 50. 



Messrs. Prevost and Dumas have published, in the same num- 

 ber of the Annates, an additional paper on the blood ; from which 

 we have extracted the following facts. 



Among the causes which may have an influence on the propor- 

 tions, or the nature, of the constituent principles of the blood, 

 there are certain pathological accidents to which, in the sequel, 

 they were led to pay particular attention. The secretory appara- 

 tus which it traverses, has always excited the curiosity of phy- 

 siologists. It would seem, at the first view, that what occurs in 

 a secreting organ, could not be appreciated with accuracy, could 

 we not subject to analysis the blood which is carried into it, that 

 which leaves it, and, lastly, the secreted liquid itself; and the 

 slightest reflection unanswerably proves, that the hope of obtaining 

 such data is vain. But in certain cases there is a legitimate 

 method of eluding this difficulty, and we shall here explain it in a 

 few words. , . . 



The blood distributed to a secreting organ arrives at it in a 

 certain state, experiences in its passage through it, a certain 

 change, and returns into the circulating mass, where it is mingled 

 with the whole sanguine liquid. But if by any means whatsoever, 

 the secreting organ be deprived of its influence, the fluid travers- 



