226 ON THE EARLY STAGES OF INFLAMMATION 
micrometer), the blood was flowing in all the capillaries supplied by it, though 
containing a very abnormal amount of corpuscles. After a few minutes, the 
vessel contracted spontaneously to 14°, and though this was only about a medium 
width, the flow of the blood became much retarded in the capillaries, and in one 
of them ceased almost entirely. Water of 115° Fahr. being then thrown upon 
the web, the calibre of the artery was raised to above 2°, and the flow was re- 
sumed in all the capillaries. A few minutes later the vessel again contracted 
spontaneously to 14°, when stagnation of the blood became nearly complete 
in a few of the capillaries. Water at 120° was then applied and caused con- 
striction to a further degree, followed by dilatation to above 2°: during the 
constriction, the blood scarcely moved at all in the capillaries, but on the occur- 
rence of the dilatation it again flowed in all of them. 
If the applications were still further continued, the red discs became more 
and more closely packed, till at last they were crammed together so as to pro- 
duce a uniform crimson mass, unaffected by the heart even in the widest state 
of the arteries. 
It was perfectly clear that in these experiments the stagnation of the blood 
depended on something more than mere contraction of the arteries; and it 
also appeared impossible to account for it satisfactorily as a result of their 
dilatation. That inflammatory stasis might occur independently of alteration 
in the calibre of the vessels, was also shown by an experiment with capsicum 
made at this period. A morsel of this substance having been placed upon the 
middle of a web in which the circulation was going on in perfect health and 
with unusual rapidity, the effect was great accumulation of corpuscles in two 
or three capillaries for a very short distance round the spot where the capsicum 
lay, unaccompanied by any change in the vascular dimensions. 
Chloroform proved to be an agent which very readily induced stagnation 
when locally appled ; and when it was administered in the usual way by inhala- 
tion for the purpose of performing experiments with warm water, it was found 
necessary to protect the webs carefully from its vapour, which otherwise pro- 
duced the same appearances of congestion as the hot application. In one 
instance in which a small quantity of the liquid had been applied to the web, 
I saw the red corpuscles adhering to one another by their flat surfaces, in a 
manner not seen in the healthy condition, and exactly as described by Mr. 
Wharton Jones to take place after the application of a strong solution of salt ; 
but from the very slight tendency of chloroform to mix with water, it was 1m- 
possible to believe that it had operated by way of exosmose, as was supposed 
by the authority just named to be the case with the saline solution. 
» It was believed that the solution of salt abstracted water from the blood as it flowed through 
