INTRODUCTION. 



XXXVll 



the coagulum." He asks, in endeavouring to account for the 

 erosion of bone in contact with an aneurism, whether the blood 

 has the property of dissolving bony matter, and mentions what 

 he regarded as evidence in the affirmative. 1 Again, in his im- 

 portant Remarks on the Cellular Membrane, 2 read Oct. 31, 

 1757, and published in 1762, he says, "in adhesions of parts, 

 that follow in consequence of inflammation, we observe that the 

 surfaces are first glued together by a mucusf and every wound 

 that is healing is naturally covered by a bed of soft mucus in 

 which the vessels shoot." He used the term lymph for " the 

 interstitial fluid of living bodies." Describing the effects of 

 inflammation of serous membranes, and the pus which is formed 

 without any breach in the solids, he writes, "it is only a sort 

 of inspissated serum, or an inflammatory exudation . . . the 

 containing surface is more or less covered with a glutinous 

 concretion or slough of the same colour as the fluid . . . but 

 still the surface covered by these sloughs is without ulceration 

 or loss of substance." 



Thomas Houlston 4 was acquainted with the three parts of 

 the blood, and he used the term coagulable lymph in the 

 same sense as it has long since been employed. He refers to 

 the experiments of his friend Hewson as to the heat which 

 coagulates this lymph, and concludes that the blood is not so 

 viscid in inflammation as in the natural state. Mr. Houlston's 

 dissertation is dedicated to 



Dr. George Fordyce, who remarked, among other symptoms 

 of the inflammatory diathesis, that the blood when drawn is 

 more fluid, so that the red globules fall to the bottom and the 

 coagulable lymph forms the buff or crust on the top. 5 He 

 afterwards 6 described the coagulable lymph more fully, to wit, 

 fluid in the circulation at any degree of heat between 30 and 

 120 of Fahrenheit's thermometer; coagulating when taken 



1 Medical Observations and Inquiries, by a Society of Physicians, vol. i, pp. 344, 

 345, 8vo, London, 1757. 



2 Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. ii, pp. 28, 48, 61, 62. 



3 The italics are Dr. Hunter's or his printer's. The word mucus was used in its 

 modern restricted sense by Dr. Arbuthnot, in his Essay on Aliments, p. 183, pub- 

 lished in 1731, several years before Dr. Hunter wrote. 



4 Diss. Med. Inaug. de Inflammatione, pp. 11, 12, 14, 4to, Lugd. Bat. 1767. 



5 Elements of the Practice of Physic, p. 28, Part II, 8vo, Swan, London, 1768. 



6 Ibid. pp. 4, 6, Part I, 8vo, Johnson and Payne, London, 1770. 



