IN ITS PRACTICAL ASPECTS 199 
pressure of the cord upon the veins of the sheep’s foot, we cannot doubt that the 
blood must be coagulated in the congested vessels : that between the corpuscles 
there must be cementing fibrine. The distinguishing characteristic of acute 
inflammatory exudation is of itself pretty clear evidence to this effect. The 
exudations in intense inflammation differ from those of dropsy by being coagu- 
lable ; hence the brawniness of tissues that are intensely inflamed, or the lymph 
in acute pericarditis. How can this coagulable character of the effused liquor 
sanguinis be explained except by supposing that the walls of the capillaries 
have acted for the time being like ordinary solid matter, and that, as a con- 
sequence of this behaviour of the capillaries, the corpuscles have given up to 
the liquor sanguinis (to use Schmidt’s language) the necessary fibrinoplastic 
substance ? And if the exuded liquor sanguinis coagulates, we cannot doubt 
that the plasma which remains in the capillaries is also coagulated. Nevertheless, 
if the irritant has not been pushed so far as to cause the death of the part on 
which it has acted, the tissues in due time recover, and we see the corpuscles 
gradually detaching themselves from each other, to pass on into the circulation. 
And we may surely say that, not only do the corpuscles recover their original 
non-adhesive character, but the fibrine which binds them together is dissolved. 
I believe, therefore, that although in the larger vessels the vascular walls 
are negative as regards the coagulation of the blood, in the capillary system 
there must be potent agencies counteracting any tendency to clotting induced 
by abnormal conditions, and capable even of dissolving fibrine. 
