216 ON THE EARLY STAGES OF INFLAMMATION 
effects with the alkali. Even in the mixture of blood and gum many of the 
corpuscles are cup-shaped, though adhering together with peculiar tenacity. 
Whether or not it will ever be possible to explain these curious facts upon 
chemical principles seems very doubtful; but in the meantime, what appears 
most striking about them, and what most concerns the present inquiry, is that 
great effects may be produced upon the adhesiveness of the red corpuscles, 
both in the way of increase and diminution, by very slight changes in the chemical 
qualities of the plasma. 
The galvanic current produces no effect upon the aggregation of the red 
corpuscles, either of man or of the frog, as I have ascertained by placing the 
fine platinum-wire extremities of the poles of a powerful battery a short distance 
from one another between two slips of glass beneath the microscope, then com- 
pleting the circuit by shedding a drop of blood between the plates, and imme- 
diately observing the result. In several such experiments I invariably found that 
aggregation took place as usual, and the only effect produced by the galvanism 
was a chemical change in the blood, dependent on electrolysis, gradually develop- 
ing itself in the immediate vicinity of the poles, and causing solution of the 
corpuscles. 
The buffy coat in inflammatory blood was first explained by Mr. Wharton 
Jones,? who showed that it resulted from the red corpuscles aggregating more 
closely than usual, and therefore falling more rapidly through the lighter plasma, 
so as to leave the upper portions completely before the occurrence of coagulation. 
It was supposed by the same authority that this peculiarity of the red discs 
* Since this paper was read, I was told by a gentleman well known in the scientific world, that he 
had observed, many years ago, that if blood was shed upon a plate of glass previously heated to the 
temperature of 100° Fahr., the red corpuscles showed no disposition to aggregation till the glass cooled, 
when the blood became killed, as he supposed, by the unnaturally low temperature. This appeared 
to me entirely irreconcilable with the fact that in the frog the red corpuscles aggregate immediately 
after the blood has been shed, although there is no material difference between the temperature of the 
air and that of the body of the animal. But, if true, it would have important bearings, to which I need 
not here allude, upon the essential nature of inflammation. I have therefore thought it well to make 
some experiments upon the point. The plate of glass upon which the blood was to be placed was warmed 
by immersion in water of a known temperature, and quickly but carefully dried. A drop of blood from 
my own finger was then at once shed upon it, and without loss of time covered with a piece of thin glass, 
which had been kept warm by being laid upon a metallic plate of the same temperature as the water. 
By proceeding in this way, I was able to make observations upon the blood very soon after it had been 
shed ; and when the glass was about 100° Fahr., the aggregating tendency was found just the same 
as in ordinary cases, and I detected short rouleaux already formed within five or six seconds of the 
escape of the blood from the vessels of the finger. The same state of things continued when the water 
was as high as 136°; but when its temperature was carried up to 155°, the red corpuscles lost their 
disc shape and some of them appeared to become broken up, and no rouleaux were formed either while 
the blood remained warm or after it had cooled. From these results, it is evident that heat does not 
interfere at all with the aggregating tendency of the corpuscles, unless it is sufficiently great to act upon 
them chemically. 
* British and Foreign Medical Review, October 1842. 
