526 



BLOOD. 



by this agent, the case is hot quite so hopeless as in 

 some of the others which occur less instantaneously ; 

 as the copious affusion of cold water, if applied in- 

 stantly, sometimes makes the body re-act. Excessive 

 exertion in man and other animals, and excessive 

 mental excitement in man have the same results ; 

 and some of the more deadly poisons both animal 

 and vegetable have still the same. The bodies 

 of animals perishing by any of these, or any other 

 means which prevents the stiffening of the muscles 

 after death, become much sooner putrid than those 

 which stiffen ; and as the vessels lose their contrac- 

 tile power at the same time that the tone of the blood 

 is broken down, the flesh of the animals, if it is to be 

 used as food, cannot be so completely cleared of 

 blood. It is on this account, as well as on that of the 

 tendency to putrefaction, that the flesh of overdriven 

 cattle is eo very unwholesome. 



The coincidence of so many causes operating upon 

 so many different parts of the. body, and in so varied 

 ways, and yet all producing effects so simultaneous 

 and so similar, in destroying the power of coagula- 

 tion or of the formation of fibrin in the blood, and of 

 contractility in the muscles, show beyond all doubt 

 that there is a similarity, if not an absolute sameness, 

 in those two parts of the animal system. The co-ex- 

 istence, or co-production, of contained blood and 

 containing muscular vessels, in the very first stage of 

 organisation in the young animal, is a farther con- 

 firmation of this ; and when, as in this case, we find 

 the physiological proof nearly complete, we may 

 safely call in that of the chemical composition in 

 which the fibrin of blood and muscular fibre com- 

 pletely agree. 



The very same evidence, however, prevents us 

 from concluding that the blood or the muscular fibre, 

 or the union of the two is the immediate seat of life. 

 Indeed, it leaves the question of life and its locality 

 exactly where they were found that is, as matters 

 beyond the range of philosophical inquiry, and there- 

 fore without the pale of useful and legitimate specu- 

 lation. A blow upon the stomach sufficient to cause 

 death, or a concussion of the brain producing the 

 same result, has more effect upon this peculiar qua- 

 lity, both of the blood and the muscle, which may 

 be considered as their specific modification of life, 

 than if the blood were wnolly spilt upon the ground, 

 and the muscles hacked by innumerable wounds. 

 Indeed the wounding of the muscles tends to increase 

 the contractile power of those which remain, and no 

 wound of a muscle is, in the first instance, mortal, 

 though it may become so by ulceration and gangrene, 

 the putrid matter of which is taken into the system 

 by absorption. Those who are killed by sword 

 wounds die with the body in a state of great excite- 

 ment ; and the probability is that they feel much 

 more pain than those who perish by gun-shot. The 

 crimping of fish> by cutting the flakes of the muscles 

 before life is extinct, and then applying a stimulant 

 to the wounds, though withal a most barbarous ope- 

 ration, if people are to be supposed to feel for that 

 on which they feed, shows that the contractility of 

 the muscles even of a fish, in which what is called 

 (not very intelligibly) muscular irritation, is under- 

 stood to be much less sensible than in the warm 

 blooded animals, is not very greatly destroyed even 

 by a number of deeply incised wounds. 



In the case of the blood again, the removal of a 

 portion of that may be considered the severest me- 



chanical injury which it can receive ; and this instead 

 of having any tendency to destroy either its supposed 

 vitality, or its capacity of healthful action, is very 

 often a means of restoring the blood to a healthy 

 state in those cases where it may be said to be dis- 

 eased, and of recovering the whole body in the case 

 of many casualties and not a few diseases. In inanv 

 cases where by stunning, contusion, or many other 

 means, the action of life is suspended, that action can 

 generally be restored if blood can be made to flow 

 from an opened vein ; and if the vital heat is not 

 gone through length of time, or there has been some- 

 thing more than a mere mechanical injury without 

 mortal wound, the impossibility of obtaining blood 

 from a vein, is one of the most hopeless symptoms. 



Though there is not much meaning in great part 

 of which is said and written on the subject of diseased 

 states of the blood, there are some diseases of which 

 the character is indicated by the appearance which 

 the coagulum of the blood assumes, when it is 

 allowed to settle. One of those in which the blood 

 has a very dark appearance, and comes from the 

 veins as if it had already undergone a sort of imper- 

 fect or spurious coagulation in the system, and which 

 is the result of an imperfect or diminished circulation 

 bordering upon the putrid type, can be better ex- 

 plained in the article CIRCULATION, as in that article 

 we propose to explain the action of respiration on 

 the blood, as well as the mere motion of the blood in 

 the vessels. But there is another case, that in which 

 the coagulum exhibits what is technically called 

 " the butfy coat," from its resemblance to buff leather. 

 This is characteristic of inflammatory disease, in 

 which the circulation is greatly increased both in 

 rapidity and violence, and attended with much heat, 

 showing that the system labours, or that there is 

 much resistance to the increased motion of the fluid. 

 This increased resistance does not take place so 

 much in the larger vessels, as in the capillaries, by 

 which the minute extremities of the arteries and veins 

 are united to each other, and through which the cir- 

 culating blood must pass. It falls not within the scope 

 of natural history to examine the causes by which 

 this resistance is produced ; it may arise from stimu- 

 lus of the propelling organs, or from a decayed state 

 of the capillaries themselves, brought on by inter- 

 rupted perspiration, and by many other causes. The 

 buffy coat consists of matter analogous to pus, which is 

 brought from the capillaries by the veins, and if con- 

 tinued to a certain extent it would change the cha- 

 racter of the disease by the gradual accumulation of 

 a poison in the system. The taking up of foreign 

 matter by the veins, is not however the sole cause, 

 or even always a cause of the appearance of this 

 buffy coat. There may be a decomposition of the 

 blood in this inflammatory state, by means of which 

 the colouring matter (the red globules) which is 

 rather an adjunct to the fibrin than a constituent part 

 of it, falls to the bottom, and leaves the fibrin itself 

 upon the surface ; but in those cases there is very 

 generally an admixture of matter resembling pus, 

 and not unfrequently such matter predominates. The 

 carrying of this matter, or of blood which in any way 

 exhibits the butty coat, to the lungs, on the walls of 

 the cells of hich the capillary ramifications of the 

 vessels are peculiarly fine, is always attended with 

 an aggravation of the disease, and if the lungs are 

 weak, there is some danger of the disease being 

 thrown upon them. 



