VITAL PROPERTIES AND RELATIONS OF THE BLOOD. 



would be to produce disorder and disease, primarily in the 

 blood itself, and secondarily in the organs. 



VITAL PROPERTIES AND RELATIONS OP THE BLOOD. 



Dr. John Hunter stands prominent in demonstrating 

 the vitality of the blood. The analogy of the fresh egg 

 furnished one of his strongest proofs, showing that vitality 

 can be connected with the fluids where there is no visible 

 organization present. 



The fresh egg may be exposed for weeks with impunity 

 to a temperature that would certainly putrify the stale 

 egg. The hen, whose period of incubation is three weeks, 

 keeps her eggs at a temperature, it is said, of 105 degrees, 

 yet when the chick is hatched the yolk is perfectly sweet. 



This remarkable power of resistance to heat in the fluid 

 of the egg, could be attributed to nothing but its vitality. 

 Its power of resisting cold is equally great. Mr. Hunter 

 exposed an egg to 1*7 and 15 of Fahrenheit, and found it 

 took half an hour to freeze it. When thawed and again 

 exposed to a temperature of 25 it froze in one half the time. 



A fresh egg, and one previously frozen and again thawed, 

 were placed in a cold mixture of 25 Fahrenheit: the egg 

 that had been frozen was again frozen 25 minutes sooner 

 than the fresh. 



Fresh drawn blood, and blood that had been frozen and 

 then thawed, by similar experiments, showed the same re- 

 sults all leading to the same inference of the blood's 

 vitality. 



Another proof of the blood's vitality, is its preserving 

 the fluid state while circulating in the vessels; for, on be- 

 ing removed from the body, coagulation, it is well known, 

 very soon occurs. And it occurs, not because the blood is 

 at rest and ceases to circulate, for experiment shows that 

 if it be kept at the same temperature; and have the same 

 rapidity in a dead tube as in the living, it will still become 

 solid, proving that its fluidity in the body must be owing 

 to vital agency. 



