238 ON THE EARLY STAGES OF INFLAMMATION 
are as free from adhesiveness within the vessels as the red discs, but like them 
assume that property in a degree proportionate to the amount of irritation to 
which the part has been subjected. When the irritation has been very slight, 
the white corpuscles, which are susceptible of much greater adhesiveness than 
the red (as we learn from examining blood outside the body?), acquire some 
tendency to stick to the vascular parietes, while the red discs still move on in 
a manner generally regarded as consistent with health, though really lagging 
slightly behind the liquor sanguinis, and consequently presenting themselves 
in somewhat abnormal proportion. I have often observed the complete absence 
of adhesiveness of the white corpuscles within the vessels in health, and have. 
also watched them gradually assume a tendency to adhere, in consequence of 
repeated mild applications of chloroform to a web in which they previously 
exhibited no such disposition whatever. As the irritation increases, the vessels 
become crusted with them often to a remarkable degree, and occasionally large, 
colourless, agglomerated masses of them, just such as are seen in blood drawn 
from the body, may be observed to roll along the large veins among the slowly 
moving and very numerous red discs. I once watched the formation of one 
of these masses? as a delta-like accumulation at the place where a considerable 
venous branch opened into a main trunk, the calibre of which was nearly 
entirely occupied by it before it was swept away by the current. As a general 
rule, the white corpuscles when adhering do not arrest the progress of the red 
ones, which are often seen to pass through very small intervals among the 
colourless masses ; not unfrequently, however, red corpuscles are stopped in 
their course and adhere among the white ones, and sometimes, especially in 
young frogs, capillaries become obstructed throughout their entire length by 
white corpuscles alone, and when this is the case, they are apt to escape notice 
from the inconspicuous character of their contents. 
The adhesiveness of the white corpuscles, as of the red ones, is limited to 
the part irritated. A very good example of this presented itself on one occasion 
when a minute drop of chloroform was applied to a small part of a healthy web 
so as to induce full dilatation of the arteries and great excess of corpuscles, but 
without absolute stagnation. It happened that the part affected was supplied 
with blood by the branches coming from one side of a principal artery ; the 
main trunk being seated just about the limit between the irritated area and 
the healthy region, the adjacent part of which received supply from the branches 
of the vessel on the other side. The latter showed no appearance of adhering 
white corpuscles, nor did the capillaries which were fed by them; but those 
UOC, pe ide 
* This observation was made subsequently to the reading of the paper. 
