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B L O O D. 



all the other parts of the animal economy, but in itself 

 as one of the most interesting subjects in nature, and 

 one in which the Divine wisdom and power are more 

 strikingly displayed than in any other part of the 

 material creation. We can in part understand the 

 mechanical structures of animals, and in part imitate 

 them ; but when we come to consider the blood, we 

 may well be lost in wonder. We find it primarily, 

 and as we may say, in vessels that do not belong to 

 the new animal, when that animal is in that twilight 

 dawn of its being, the mysterious darkness of which 

 no light of human philosophy can dispel or even 

 penetrate. 



This blood is constant to the grand division, the 

 class, the group, arid all the minor subdivisions of 

 animals down to the species and the variety; but in 

 no one animal, excepting those which are propagated 

 by what may perhaps be considered as mechanical 

 divisions of the bodies of existing ones, can the blood 

 of one generation be considered as a portion of that 

 of the preceding one. In all other cases there is a 

 line of separation, a mysterious boundary, wholly 

 beyond the reach of human ken, which makes the 

 young, whether viviparous, oviparous, or of that mixed 

 mode of production which partakes of the characters 

 of both, a distinct and separate animal : o/the parent 

 certainly, but not a part of the parent. The blood is 

 new blood ; and because the mystery of the transfor- 

 mation will not unveil itself to the most searching 

 eye of philosophy, every new animal which is brought 

 forth, be the mode, as far as observable, what it may, 

 is as much a miracle to human understanding as the 

 production of an animal where parent there is none. 

 The thousandth, the millionth, the th generation 

 (that of which no arithmetic can express the number) 

 thus carries the mind as necessarily and immediately 

 to the Creator as the consideration of the primal 

 parent which His creative fiat spake into being. We 

 cannot in this or in any other case follow the chain 

 of natural causes till we come to the primary link 

 the part, so to speak, at which the springs of life are 

 touched by the immediate finger of God ; but if we 

 follow the contemplation in the true spirit of rational 

 and at the same time devout philosophy (and here 

 these are not two), we feel something more than 

 mortal beam upon the mind. But it is a glory too 

 radiant for material eyes, and will not remain till we 

 question it ; yet it leaves a hope which takes the 

 grief out of all the vicissitudes of our mortal life, and 

 destroys all apprehension of its close. 



This is the grand climax of the study of the blood, 

 and indeed of the whole active principles of the ani- 

 mated tribes ; but the steps to it are also pleasant as 

 well as profitable, and they are both open and invit- 

 ing to our inquiry. We shall, therefore, offer a few 

 more detached remarks on the nature, or rather the 

 functions, of the vital fluid ; and as these are most 

 striking in the warm-blooded animals, we shall refer 

 chiefly to them. It is necessary here, however, to 

 make a very short explanation, as well to prevent the 

 uninformed reader from being misled, as to keep our 

 meaning from being perverted by the captious. 

 When we apply the term " vital fluid " to the blood, 

 we do not mean to assert that the blood is the seat 

 of life, or that, considered as blood and apart from 

 the organisation of the animal to which it belongs, 

 and from the living action of that organisation, it is 

 possessed of life of any kind, or in any degree. The 

 blood has no sensibility under any circumstances, and 



no life or capacity of acting wholesomely upon the 

 system, unless when it is in healthy circulation in its 

 own vessels. And when there is what is popularly 

 called a diseased state of the blood, it is not to 1><; 

 understood that it is in itself vitiated, even when it is 

 mingled with the venom of a reptile, or with any 

 other animal poison, whether imparted to the system 

 or produced in it. It is riot the blood itself which is 

 poisoned in these cases, it is the blood which poisons 

 the other parts of the system, by becoming unfit for 

 acting in concert with them, or, as we say, stimulating 

 them in the way which is necessary to the healthful 

 action of the wnole body in all its systems. If these 

 systems preserve their functions, the blood may par- 

 tially die (so to express it) within the system, without 

 the smallest injury to the action, or the smallest dan- 

 ger to any part of the system. In the case of partial 

 bruises which are, according to the common saying, 

 " black and blue," there is always a quantity of blood 

 coagulated, which in time may be extracted as a dark 

 powder or a sort of cake, under which a healthy skin 

 has formed. Something similar takes place in* those 

 discolorations or patches of the skin, which are vul- 

 garly known by the name of " dead men's pinches," 

 and which, though they are unseemly while they last, 

 are really the results of healthy action in the system, 

 sufficient to throw offensive matter to the surface. 

 The same sort of process often takes place in wounds, 

 which are healed over without being cleared of ex- 

 travasated blood. The writer of this article had a 

 personal instance of this in a pretty deep incised 

 wound in a fleshy part of the body, which healed 

 over, not exactly by the first intention, but in a short 

 time, and with no great pain. For several years there 

 was an occasional itching, with sometimes slight 

 pain, under the scar ; and about eight or nine years 

 after the healing, the scar became black like a bruise ; 

 and after an intolerable itching, the integuments gave 

 way, and a pellet of coagulated blood was discharged, 

 after which there was no more itching or pain in the 

 seat of the scar. Cases of this kind often occur in 

 different parts of the body, without any wound or 

 other external injury. They are not unfrequently 

 formed in cases of aneurism, sometimes in those of 

 varix ; and they occur not only in the common fleshy 

 parts, but in the heart and even in the brain. When 

 they occur in these inner parts, which are considered 

 as more eminently vital, ignorance sometimes trans- 

 forms them into worms of strange colour and nature, 

 and sets them down as the causes of disease and even 

 of death, though they are perfectly harmless, and 

 have no tendency to extend to the other parts of the 

 system .that death which they themselves have under- 

 gone. 



These facts, and many more of a similar nature, 

 could be adduced, to show, that when we call the 

 blood the vital fluid, no distinct or specific vitality, at 

 all analogous to that of animals in which organisation 

 is much developed, and sensation or action of any 

 kind vigorous, can be imputed to it. This might be 

 inferred also from what has been said of the blood 

 being the beginning or rudimental part of life, and a 

 system of blood-vessels of some sort or other always 

 being present in the lowest state of animal develop- 

 ment, whether in the fetal state of the animal or in 

 the mature state of the less developed ones. All that 

 empirics say about diseases of the blood, as such, and 

 nostrums for their removal, must therefore be regarded 

 as falling within the category of nonsense, which on 



