12 Dr Prout on the Phenomena of Sanguification [Jan. 
ARTICLE IV. 
On the Phenomena of Sanguification, and on the Blood in 
general. By W. Prout, M.D. 
[Parr of the following paper has already been laid before the 
oni under the title of an “ Inquiry mto the Origin and 
roperties of the Blood : ” as, however, it was never completed, 
and as the work in which it appeared had a very limited circula- 
tion, the author has been induced to correct and republish the 
whole in a condensed and somewhat different form.] 
The object of the present essay is to give a summary and 
connected view of what is known respecting the phenomena 
and intimate nature of sanguification. Fora considerable propor- 
tion of the facts, I am, of course, indebted to others; but I 
flatter myself that my readers will readily excuse the introduction 
of these, on reflecting that the assistance of what is known is 
necessary to the further extension of knowledge, and to enable 
us to arrive at the unknown. 
Perhaps, it may facilitate the perusal of these pages to premise, 
in general terms, the opinion which my observations have led 
me to form respecting the development and nature of the blood, 
the arrangement of the subject being chiefly founded upon that 
opinion. My notion is then that the blood begins to be formed, 
or developed from the food, in all its parts from the first moment 
of its entrance into the duodenum, or even, perhaps, from the 
first moment of digestion, and that it gradually becomes more 
and more perfect as it passes through the different stages to 
which it is subjeeted, till its formation be completed in the san 
guiferous tubes, when it represents an aqueous solution of the 
ee textures and other parts of the animal body to which it 
elongs. 
The chief ingredients in the blood are albumen, fibrin, and 
the colouring principle, which may be supposed to represent the 
common cellular texture, the muscular texture, and the nervous 
texture,* respectively. These different principles are so nearly 
allied to one another in their chemical properties, that Berzelius 
has given them the general name of albuminous contents of the 
blood—a term which, for the sake of convenience, we shall adopt 
in the following inquiry. 
The principal distinct stages in the formation of blood in all 
the more perfect animals are digestion, chymification, chylifica- 
tion, and sanguification, usually so called ; the first process being 
* TI by no means wish to be understood to assert that the red particles of the 
blood are destined to form the cerebral and nervous substances of animal bodies. 
I believe, however, that they are more intimately connected with the nervous func+ 
tion than any other ingredient of the blood, as I shall attempt to show hereafter, 
‘ 
