INTRODUCTION. xxxiii 



He gave an excellent description, like Malpighr's, of the 

 blood-clot j 1 but added a fanciful explanation of the reticular 

 or membranous structure of the buffy coat, and of polypi of the 

 heart, maintaining that the lymphatic juices do not coagulate 

 into an uniform substance like cheese, because they are com- 

 pounded with many others ; that the molecules concreting first, 

 act as wire-drawers to produce the filaments, and the red parts 

 as balls or grains, between which the congealed juices are 

 continued as fibres. 2 



The serum he called serosity, as Verduc and Petit had before 

 done, and represented it as the vehicle of all the other matters 

 of the blood. 3 He truly observed, in anticipation of Mr. 

 Hunter's 4 experimental proof, that heat cannot be the cause of 

 the fluidity of the blood of fishes living in iced water during 

 winter; 5 yet, following the experiments cr opinions of Schwenke, 

 states it to be a fact, that a temperature above 96 keeps the 

 blood liquid ; 6 that its liquidity is preserved by agitation in a 

 bottle ; that a large quantity of nitre or of sea-salt coagulates 

 the blood when kept still, though it remains fluid if agitated ; 7 

 next, that these salts prevent coagulation; 8 and finally, that 

 nitre, injected into the veins, coagulates the blood. 9 



The second edition of Senac's work contains many of the 

 crudities of the first, and several improvements in matters which 

 had been made clear by the experiments of Hewson. Thus, 

 although Senac retained his vague notion of several sponta- 

 neously coagulable matters in the blood, to wit, lymph, fat, 

 mucous matter, and gelatinous juices, 10 he introduced a state- 

 ment, not in the first edition, that it is the lymph only which 

 coagulates; 11 and to prove, according to divers writers, that the 

 exclusion of air makes the blood less susceptible of coagulation, 

 he details an experiment of his own, 12 inconsistent with the 

 accurate knowledge he had formerly shown of the effect of re- 



1 Ed. 1749, torn, ii, p. 449 ; and 2d edit. torn, ii, p. 415. 



2 Ed*. 1749, torn, ii, p. 450 ; and 2d edit. torn, ii, pp. 415, 416. 



3 Ed. 1749, torn, ii, p. 104 ; and 2d edit. torn, ii, p. 292. 



* Works, edited by Mr. Palmer, vol. iii, p. 26, 8vo, London, 1837. 



5 Ed. 1749, torn, ii, p. 133 ; and 2d edit. torn, ii, p. 302. 



6 Ed. 1749, torn, ii, p. 133. 7 Ed. 1749, torn, ii, p. 134. 

 8 Ed. 1749, torn, ii, p. 136. 9 Ed. 1749, torn, ii, p. 459. 



10 Second edit. torn, ii, pp. 285, 414, 416. 



11 Second edit. torn, ii, p. 302. 12 Second edit. torn, ii, p. 303. 



