INTRODUCTION. xxix 



regarded the coagulation of the blood as caused simply by the 

 running together of the red corpuscles ; and that the crassa- 

 mentum is formed merely of an aggregation of them was also 

 the opinion of William Northcote 1 and of Dr. Marmaduke 

 Berdoe. 2 Berdoe called the serum serosity. Jurin, Morgan, 

 and Northcote used the terms serum and lymph synonymously. 

 Martine denied the existence of the fibres described by Malpighi 

 in the blood-clot ; Cowper and Northcote expressed a similar 

 opinion. Huxham 3 stated that the buffy coat is caused by the 

 heat in an ardent fever turning the serum into a jelly; Lister, 4 

 that the serum becomes a stiff jelly by a little standing; and 

 although Dr. Butt 5 described the coagulable lymph, and so 

 called it, he confounded it with serum and with the white of 

 egg. Dr. Francis Home 6 described the blood as consisting of 

 crassamentum, serum, and lymph, mentioning, as the properties 

 of the latter, only those of the serum. To the third and last 

 volume of the ' Bibliotheca Anatomica/ published in London in 

 1714, in 4to, some of -the ablest men of the day, as Keill, Drake, 

 and Yerheyen, contributed essays on the blood, which are re- 

 markable for errors similar to those above noticed. 



On the Continent, Leeuwenhoek 7 seems to have considered 

 the blood as composed only of globules and serum, and the 

 former as the spontaneously coagulable part. Boerhaave, 8 and 

 his commentator Van Sweiten, 9 Haller, 10 and Marherr, 11 de- 

 scribed coagulation as a mere conjunction of the red globules, 

 and the clot as nothing but a cohering mass of them, save some 



1 Anatomy of the Human Body, p. 425, Svo, London, 1772. 



2 An Essay on the" Nature and Circulation of the Blood, p. 18, Svo, London, 1772. 



3 Essay on Fevers, 6th edit. p. 36, Svo, London, 1769. 



4 Philosophical Transactions, 1672, vol. vii, p. 5137. 



4 De Spon. Sang. Sep. pp. 514-15, 4to, Edin. 1760 ; in Sandifort. Thesaur. torn. ii. 



6 An Inquiry into the Nature, Cause, and Cure of the Croup, p. 39, Svo, Edinb. 



1765. 



7 Philosophical Transactions, 1675, vol. x, p. 380 ; and for 1700, vol. xxii, p. 450 ; 

 and Select Works, tr. by Sam. Hoole, vol. i, p. 89, 4to, London, 1800. 



8 Pralectiones Academics, ed. et Notas additit Alb. Haller. vol. ii, ccxxvii, Svo, 

 Gottingae, 1740. 



9 Aphor. 93. 



10 Deux Memoires sur le Mouvement du Sang, pp. 21-2, Svo, Lausanne, 1756; 

 Primae Lineze Physiologic, cxxxvii, cxxxviii, cxliv, cxlvii, Svo, Gottingae, 1780. 



11 Preelections in Herm. Boerhaave Institutiones Medicas, torn, ii, pp. 254-55, Svo, 

 Viennse et Lipsiae, 1772. 



