150 THE CIRCULATION 



This is effected by the plasma. It both conveys oxygen and 

 removes carbonic acid. This is done through the corpuscles. 

 Some singular experiments have been tried to illustrate the 

 life-giving power of the blood. An animal that has bled so 

 freely as to be at the point of death, is promptly brought back 

 to life by an operation called transfusion, by which fresh blood 

 from a living animal is injected into the blood-vessels of his 

 body. (Read Note 3.) 



13. It is related that a dog, deaf and feeble from age, had 

 hearing and activity restored to him by the introduction into 

 his veins of blood taken from a young dog ; and, that a horse, 

 twenty-six years old, having received the blood of four lambs, 

 acquired new vigor. And further, that a dog, just dead from 

 an acute disease, was so far revived by transfusion, as to be 

 able to stand and make a few movements. 



14. Transfusion has been practised upon man. At one time, 

 shortly after Harvey's discovery of the "Circulation of the 

 Blood," it became quite a fashionable remedy, it being thought 



Fill a glass vessel with the blood, and observe the different steps in its 

 coagulation. In about two to three minutes it becomes viscid, and after 

 about five to ten minutes it has assumed a jelly-like character, so that the 

 vessel can be turned over without spilling its contents. Now will be seen 

 on the surface of the jelly a few drops of fluid, which rapidly multiply, 

 so that soon a layer of straw-colored fluid is floating on the surface. This 

 fluid increases, and the clot contracts more and more, until at the end of 

 about twelve hours, the process is complete, and we have a firmly con- 

 tracted clot floating in a clear straw-colored fluid. The clot is composed 

 of the fibrin and corpuscles, and the fluid is the serum, colored by a few 

 red corpuscles. 



3. The Work of the Blood. "The blood, which is our life, is a 

 complex fluid. It contains the materials out of which the tissues are 

 made, and also the debris which results from the destruction of the same 

 tissues, the worn-out cells of brain and muscle, the cast-off clothes 

 of emotion, thought, and power. It is the common carrier, conveying 

 unceasingly to every gland and organ, the fibrin and albumen which 

 repair their constant waste, thus supplying their daily bread. Like the 

 water flowing through the canals of Venice, that carries health and wealth 

 to the portals of every house, and filth and disease from every doorway, 



13. The case of the deaf and feeble dog ? Horse ? Dead dog ? 



14. Transfusion, as a fashionable remedy ? What further of transfusion ? 



