IN THE DEAD BODY. 205 



assume, with Scherer, that a portion of the alkali is by some means 

 removed from the albuminate of soda in the blood, and that a 

 portion of the albumen has been separated in a finely granular 

 form, after the removal of the alkali which had been combined 

 with it. (See vol. i., p. 333.) 



In some cases the turbidity of the serum depends upon the 

 presence of suspended colourless blood-cells, as both Pieschel and 

 myself have observed in the blood of dogs affected with the 

 mange. 



If it be admitted that the physical relations of morbid blood, 

 as it flows fresh from the vein, is a subject of considerable im- 

 portance, the character of the blood in the dead body, in respect 

 to the mode of its coagulation and its colour and consistence, 

 cannot be devoid of interest to the pathologist. However strongly 

 we may protest against the doctrine of erases, which is based on 

 such investigations, as a perversion of the so-called pathologico- 

 anatomical tendency, we cannot withhold our testimony to the 

 value of the labours of such inquirers as Rokitansky and Engel. 

 The connexions which Engel has ingeniously established between 

 the nature of the blood in the dead body and its imbibition in the 

 tissues, its accumulation in separate organs, and the character it 

 impresses on the individual tissues, as well as regarding the 

 nature and extent of the preceding exudations or transudations, 

 show that we are justified in looking for a rich accession to our 

 scientific knowledge from a more exact chemical investigation of 

 this subject. Unfortunately, however, no chemist has as yet been 

 inclined to direct his attention to this subject. Hence we do not 

 deem it altogether superfluous to follow the arrangement of 

 Rokitansky and Engel, and to consider the different kinds of 

 blood in the dead body with reference to the above physical pro- 

 perties, classifying them in the six following groups : 



1. One kind of blood found in the dead body is distinguished 

 by its thick fluid character, its reddish brown colour, and its 

 coagulability ; and is probably for the most part characteristic of a 

 certain group of diseases, since it is only met with in the bodies of 

 persons who have died from violent inflammations (with the 

 exception of inflammatory affections of the brain and the spinal 

 cord). Blood of this kind becomes bright red on exposure to the 

 air, and coagulates only in the larger vessels ; in the capillaries and 

 the smaller vessels it retains its thin fluid nature, and the coagula 

 which occur in the heart and in the larger arteries, as \v ell as the 

 larger veins, are almost always compact, and of a dark brownish 



