102 THE BLOOD. 



proportion of dry residue to a definite quantity of blood 

 having been previously ascertained. If we could be certain 

 that only the solid matter of the blood was thus removed, the 

 estimate would be tolerably accurate. As it is, we may con- 

 sider it as approximating very nearly to the truth. We quote 

 the following account of these observations : 



" My friend, Ed. "Weber, determined, with my coopera- 

 tion, the weights of two criminals both before and after their 

 decapitation. The quantity of blood which escaped from the 

 body was determined in the following manner : Water was 

 injected into the vessels of the trunk and head, until the fluid 

 escaping from the veins had only a pale red or yellow color ; 

 the quantity of the blood remaining in the body was then 

 calculated, by instituting a comparison between the solid 

 residue of this pale-red aqueous fluid, and that of the blood 

 which first escaped. By way of illustration, I subjoin the 

 results yielded by one of the experiments. The living body 

 of one of the criminals weighed 60,140 grammes (132*7 

 pounds), and the same body after decapitation 54,600 gram- 

 mes; consequently 5,540 grammes of blood had escaped. 

 28*560 grammes of this blood yielded 5*36 grammes of solid 

 residue ; 60*5 grammes of sanguineous water collected after 

 the injection, contained 3*724 grammes of solid substances ; 

 6,050 grammes of the sanguineous water that returned from 

 the veins were collected, and these contained 37*24 grammes 

 of solid residue, which corresponds to 1,980 grammes of 

 blood ; consequently, the body contained 7,520 grammes 

 (16*59 pounds), 5,540 escaping in the act of decapitation, and 

 1,980 remaining in the body ; hence, the weight of the whole 

 blood was to that of the body nearly in the ratio of 1:8. 

 The other experiment yielded a precisely similar result. 



" It cannot be assumed that such experiments as these 

 possess extreme accuracy, but they appear to have the advan- 

 tage of giving in this manner the minimum of the blood con- 

 tained in the body of an adult man ; for although some solid 

 substances, not belonging to the blood, may be taken up by 



