NOTE ON THE FORMATION OF FIBRINE. 259 



drops of serum coagulated on the glass by the action of the osmic 

 acid vapour, I repeated these experiments with pure white of egg, 

 mixed with distilled water, till it had the consistency of blood, 

 and also with fresh peritoneal and pericardial fluid, and failed to 

 obtain any appearances resembling the pale or the branching 

 corpuscles. 



Tiiese preparations have been, during the last two years, 

 inspected by many critical histologists and physiologists, who 

 have expressed favorable opinions of the interest of the results, 

 incomplete as they are. I have, however, long entertained the 

 liope that I might have been able before this to have carried the 

 research further, and to have demonstrated the same appearances 

 in the blood by other methods, and under conditions which 

 would have decided beyond a doubt whether, as I at present 

 venture to opine, these branching corpuscles are the fibrine fac- 

 tors of the blood or not. If my opinions are correct and my 

 work is confirmed, it is unnecessary to indicate the great interest 

 which would attach to such an explanation of the formation of 

 fibrine, and the light it would throw on much which has hitherto 

 been obscure and doubtful in the phenomenon of coagulation, 

 both within the body, and in blood withdrawn from the body. 

 Other engagements have prevented me from carrying on the in- 

 quiry, and I do not see any immediate prospect of being able to 

 resume it. In publishing this note now, I am sensible of the 

 incompleteness of the observations, but I am led to believe that 

 they may be useful in the present state of this subject, as fur- 

 nishing material for suggestion and for further inquiry. The 

 drawings were all made by my own hand by the camera lucida, 

 and with the utmost desire to ensure fidelity of outline and cor- 

 rectness of colour, my object being to elucidate facts, not to 

 enforce a theory. 



Postscript. — This paper was set in type at the beginning of 

 the year, and was intended for publication in the last number of 

 this Journal, but owing to pressure on space it was unavoidably 

 delayed; meantime, Bizzozero, and subsequently Naris, having 

 made some publications on the subject, some ^gw copies of this 

 paper have, with the editor's consent, been privately circulated. 



