138 A HUMORAL PATHOLOGY NO LONGER TENABLE. [BOOK I. 



of nutrition is one which is often successfully overcome by the 

 administration of iron, by fresh air, and an abundant diet. 



Eesearches on the chemical changes which take place in the blood 

 in disease were not possible until the chief proximate constituents of 

 the blood had been studied, and methods devised for their repara- 

 tion. Amongst the researches which proved of the greatest value in 

 this respect were those of Berzelius 1 , of The'nard and then of 

 MM. Prevost and Dumas 2 , which, by determining the mean composi- 

 tion of healthy human blood, first established a standard of comparison 

 which might be referred to by those studying the changes induced in 

 the blood by disease. Amongst the most complete of the systematic 

 investigations which were made in the latter subject were those of 

 Andral and Gavarret 3 , of Becquerel and Rodier 4 , of Simon 5 , whilst 

 the changes in particular diseases engaged the attention of certain 

 distinguished writers, as of Christison 6 , of Garrod 7 , of C. Schmidt 8 . 



During the last thirty years comparatively little attention has 

 been paid to the condition of the blood in various diseases, a fact 

 which may be explained partly as due to the discontinuance of the 

 practice of venesection, which has deprived the physician of the 

 material required for these investigations, partly as a result of 

 the change of views which has beeaa explained at the commencement 

 of this section. 



Of late, however, attention has again been enthusiastically directed 

 to the modifications which certain constituents of the blood undergo 

 in disease, notably to the variation in the relative number of coloured 

 and colourless corpuscles, and of the haemoglobin contained in the 

 former, and we may therefore expect rapid accessions to the exact 

 knowledge which we possess. 



We shall in the first place consider categorically the changes 

 which the various normal constituents of the blood undergo in disease, 

 and then draw special attention to the results of investigations of the 

 changes in particular diseases. 



1 Berzelius : see " General views of the Composition of Animal Fluids." Transac- 

 tions of Med.-Chir. Soc. of London, Vol. in. p. 198. 



2 Pre" vost et Dumas, " Examen du sang et de son action dans les divers ph&iomenes 

 de la vie." Ann. de Chimie, 1821, T. xvin., p. 280. A second memoir, with the same 

 title, was published in the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 1823, Vol. xxni. p. 50 

 and p. 90. 



3 Andral et Gavarret, " Eecherches sur les modifications de proportion de quelques 

 principes du sang (fibrine, globules, mat6riaux solides du serum et eau) dans les mala- 

 dies." Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Tome LXXV., p. 225 " Eecherches sur la com- 

 position du sang de quelques animaux domestiques dans 1'etat de saiit< et de maladie,' 

 (in conjunction with M. Delafond). Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 3 me s6rie, Vol. 

 v. p. 304. Andral, Essai d'Hematologie Pathologique, Paris, 1843. 



4 Becquerel et Kodier, Recherches sur les alterations du sang. Paris, 1844. Traite 

 de Chimie Pathologique appliquee a la Medecine Pratique. Paris, 1854. 



6 Simon, Animal Chemistry, translated by G. E. Day, M.D. Sydenham Society, 1845. 



6 Christison, " On granular degeneration of the kidneys, and its connexion with 

 dropsy, inflammations and other diseases. 8vo. Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black, 

 1839. 7 Garrod : see page 143. 



8 C. Schmidt, Charalcteristik der epidemischen Cholera gegenuber Transudations- 

 anomalien. Leipzig u. Mitau, 1850. 



