THE ;CAUSES OF COAGULATION OF THE BLOOD 81 
when the heart was removed, but Dr. De Fabeck (resident physician under 
Dr. Gairdner) informs me that the cavities contained coagula buffed on their 
upper surface. The vena cava, the right iliac veins (common, internal, and 
external), and the femoral vein for about four inches down the thigh, contained 
soft coagula, mixed with thick dark fluid blood. The upper part of the axillary 
vein and the internal jugular of the same side, also contained some soft dark 
coagula, but the deep epigastric, the femoral vein below the part before men- 
tioned, the internal saphena, and a smaller venous branch in the thigh, the 
axillary, except at the upper part, the cephalic, and a subcutaneous vein of the 
throat, all contained fluid blood, which coagulated in about half an hour after 
being shed; and I noticed in the thigh that the blood from a small venous 
branch coagulated more quickly than that from the saphena. In the veins 
of the lower limb, both large and small, there were curious strings of highly 
elastic tawny fibrine, but these had evidently been deposited long before death. 
Similar threads were also present in the veins of the neck and in the aorta, 
external iliac, and femoral arteries, which, however, contained but little blood, 
and no post mortem coagula. I did not test the coagulability of the blood in 
the arteries, nor in a branch of the internal iliac vein, which also contained 
fluid blood. 
I am aware of one source of fallacy in these experiments, namely, that the 
abdominal viscera are subject to decomposition before the limbs ; and as soon 
as decomposition does set in, the blood coagulates in the parts which are the 
seat of it; as, for example, in small veins of the intestines. This cause of error 
was, however, I think, guarded against in the last case ;1 and considering the 
’ Through the kindness of my friend Mr. John Gamgee, of the New Veterinary College, I have had 
the opportunity of making further observations regarding this point, upon an animal with very large 
blood-vessels, so soon after death as to avoid the risk of incipient decomposition. A healthy horse 
having been killed by pithing, at 11.30 p.m. on the 22nd inst. (March 1858), I examined the body just 
twelve hours later, while it was still warm. The cavity of the thorax, when opened, smelt perfectly 
fresh. Both auricles contained large masses of coagulum, buffed on their upper surface. There were 
also soft dark clots in both ventricles, together with a good deal of fluid blood, which, however, scarcely 
coagulated at all, a considerable portion from the right ventricle yielding, after many minutes, only 
a minute thread of fibrine. I suspect this was chiefly serum and corpuscles, which had passed in from 
the auricles on relaxation of the ventricles. There was a considerable amount of firm coagulum in 
the aorta, and the large veins at the anterior part of the chest were loaded with firm buffed clot. 
A small branch beneath the pleura, where it is reflected over the pericardium, contained perfectly fluid 
blood, as also did a coronary vein of the heart, about as large as the saphena of the human thigh ; 
whereas the concomitant artery, which was very large (bigger than the human femoral), had the blood 
a good deal coagulated. That from the coronary vein, having been shed into a saucer, yielded, after 
some time, threads and lumps of fibrine. An intercostal vein, from beneath the pleura, as big as a crow- 
quill, furnished fluid blood, which coagulated. The superficial veins of both fore-legs yielded perfectly 
liquid blood, which began to coagulate in about four minutes, and set into a solid mass. But, just 
below the axillary, small portions of coagulum made their appearance in the vessels, which here attained 
a size about equal to the femoral in man; and both the axillary trunks were plugged with firm clot. 
LISTER 1 G 
