ITS AMOUNT OF WATER. 243 



and no such conclusion can be drawn from the appearances after 

 death ; hence, if a true diminution of the blood does not exist, 

 our idea of anaemia would entirely coincide with that of hydnemia ; 

 and in point of fact, it is in most cases mistaken at the bed-side, 

 and confounded with hydraemia. The causes of hydraemia, that is to 

 say, of a great excess of water in the blood, and especially in the 

 serum, are sufficiently obvious from the preceding observations. 

 Hydrcemia,like dropsy,is only the consequence of an abnormal state 

 of certain organs, for the one necessarily follows the other, each being 

 dependent on purely physical laws ; if the blood becomes more 

 watery, the albumen more readily transudes through the capillaries 

 of this or that organ, especially where the motion of the blood is 

 somewhat impeded, and hence the frequency of oedema of the feet ; 

 if albumen passes away with the urine, the blood becomes poorer 

 in solid constituents, and the serum more readily transudes ; hence, 

 dropsy is a constant attendant on Bright's disease. If, however, 

 dropsy appear sooner than hydraemia, the latter must be the 

 necessary consequence of the former, if abundant transudations of 

 albumen render the blood more watery, without this condition 

 being counteracted by a sufficient renewal of nutriment from 

 without. (C. Schmidt.*) 



A decided and absolute diminution of the water in the serum, 

 and in the blood generally, is in reality only observed in cholera ; 

 on this point all observers concur : the watery character of the 

 dejections in cholera, which often contain only from O3 to 0'5-jf of 

 solid constituents, afford a ready explanation of this peculiarity. 



In addition to the diseases already mentioned, viz., acute articular 

 rheumatism, puerperal peritonitis and erysipelas, there is also a 

 diminution of the water in the serum, although only a relative one, 

 in chronic diseases of the heart. If, however, symptoms of dropsy 

 have already supervened, we always find that the serum contains 

 an abnormal excess of water. 



Before leaving this subject we must remark, that in addition to 

 the proposition that the water of the blood always stands in an 

 inverse relation to the blood-corpuscles, we have also established 

 the aphorism, that the quantity of water in the blood is always 

 proportional to its quantity of fibrin. We must, however, remark 

 that this statement must not be taken literally, that is to say, in a 

 mathematical sense, for we are unable to deduce any formula 

 expressing such a relation. On instituting a comparison between 

 the most accurate analyses which we possess, we just as often find 



* Characteristik der Cholera. S. 116151. 



R 2 



