ITS PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL, AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS. 189 



recently been drawn by Prof. J. H. Bennett 1 to a condition of the Blood, which 

 is especially characterized by a marked excess of these bodies, and which he 

 has designated by the term Leucocythaemia (white-cell-blood). This condition 

 has been detected in the blood of a considerable number of individuals suffering 

 under diseases (most commonly enlargement) of the Spleen, Liver, and Lym- 

 phatic glands, either separately or in conjunction ; but it has not yet been de- 

 termined how far it is constantly associated with any of these abnormal con- 

 ditions. In all cases in which the blood has been analyzed, its specific gravity 

 has been found very low, and the total amount of solids small (being in one 

 instance only 119 parts in 1000) ; but the fibrin is almost invariably above the 

 average, having in one instance risen to 7.08. The total amount of Corpuscles 

 is considerably reduced, having ranged in six analyses between 49.7 and 101.6, 

 the average having been 82.36 ; and so large a proportion of the whole mass 

 was in some instances determined by the microscope (no means being at present 

 known, of physically separating these two orders of bodies) to be of the color- 

 less kind, that the amount of red corpuscles must have been exceedingly small. 

 The proportion of solids in the serum does not seem to undergo any decided 

 alteration. No marked change in the condition of the blood could be observed 

 during the progress of any of the cases which were under observation for long 

 periods ; and the circumstances under which the commencement of this morbid 

 perversion occurs are still quite unknown. When the colorless corpuscles are 

 present in very large amount, they give to the colorless coagula found in the 

 heart and large vessels after death, a dull whitish color, and render them very 

 friable. 



176. The quantity of Albumen in the blood seems to vary less than that of 

 most of its other constituents. The proportion which it bears to the water of 

 the serum is of course elevated by anything which diminishes the latter ; and 

 thus we find it high in cholera after profuse discharges of fluid from the intes- 

 tinal canal, and in other cases in which there has been an unusual drain upon 

 the liquid part of the blood, provided that the albumen does not pass off with 

 it, as sometimes happens. Where some special cause is in operation, which 

 favors the escape of the albumen from the circulating current (as happens in 

 various forms of Albuminuria, but especially in the advanced stage of " Bright' s 

 disease"), the amount of albumen in the serum is reduced below the normal 

 standard. Thus Dr. Christison found the entire solids of the serum to be re- 

 duced in some instances to 55 or even 52 parts in 1000, his estimate of their 

 normal amount being 83.4; and he found the specific gravity of the serum to 

 fall as low as 1020 or even 1019, the normal standard being from 1029 to 1031. 

 According to Andral, the diminution in the amount of Albumen in the Serum 

 is exactly proportional to the quantity contained in the Urine. 3 The proportion 



1 See his successive Papers in the "Edinb. Monthly Journal," for 1851. 



2 A case is related by Andral, under this head, which affords an interesting exemplifica- 

 tion of the general facts that have been attained by his investigations. A woman who 

 had been suffering from Erysipelas of the face, and who lost blood both by venesection 

 and by leeches, became the subject of Albuminuria. The blood drawn at this time ex- 

 hibited a considerable diminution in the proportion of Corpuscles, as well as of Albumen, 

 a fact which the previous loss of blood fully accounted for. After a short period, during 

 which she had been allowed a fuller diet, another experimental bleeding exhibited an in- 

 crease in the proportion of Corpuscles. Some time afterwards, when the Albumen had 

 disappeared from the Urine, some more blood was drawn ; and it was then observed that 

 the Albumen of the Serum had returned to its due proportion, but that the Corpuscles had 

 again diminished, whilst there was a marked increase in the quantity of Fibrin. This 

 alteration was fully accounted for by the fact, that, in the interval, several Lymphatic 

 ganglia in the neck had been inflamed and had suppurated ; and that the patient had been 

 again placed on very low diet. ''Thus," observes Andral, "we were enabled to give a 

 complete explanation of the remarkable oscillations which were presented, in the propor- 

 tion of the different elements of the blood drawn at three different times from the same 



