xlii INTRODUCTION. 



supported and extended by Milne Edwards/ and adopted by 

 Dutrochet, 2 Beclard, 3 and others. 



But it never took root in Britain, where, although Davies 

 was forgotten, the accurate conclusions of Hewson remained 

 current in the schools and among the best independent ob- 

 servers. Thus Dr. Davy 4 always considered the three parts of 

 the blood distinctly ; he defined coagulation to be a change 

 from the liquid state of fibrin to the solid, and showed that 

 fibrin is viscid before it becomes firm, so accounting for mor- 

 bid adhesions. This change in the fibrin from a liquid to a 

 solid, was the chief fact from which the supposed production 

 of heat in coagulation was inferred, originally, I think, by 

 Fourcroy. Dr. Gordon, 5 Mr. Wilson, 6 Dr. Babington, 7 and 

 others, plainly distinguished the three parts of the blood; and we 

 have the excellent testimony of Dr. Sharpey 8 that Dr. Gordon 

 was in the habit of giving, in his lectures, an account of serum 

 and fibrin being the products of the coagulation of the trans- 

 parent blood-fluid, as the common opinion of physiologists. In 

 like manner Mr. Abernethy, in his lectures, when I was his 

 pupil, used to distinguish the different parts of the blood, just 

 as Mr. Hunter 9 had written after Davies, Dr. Hunter, and 

 Hewson. Moreover, the exact observations of Dr. Hodgkin 

 and Mr. Lister 10 were quite against the views of Sir Everard 

 Home and Dr. Milne Edwards ; and in 1829 we find an eminent 

 Teacher 11 declaring that the new theory had been proved in 

 this country to be erroneous. 



In Germany the difference between the corpuscles of the 



1 Repertoire General d'Anatomie et de Physiologic, torn, iii, 4to, Paris, 1827. 



2 Recherches sur la Formation de la Fibre Musculaire, Annales des Sciences Natu- 

 relles, torn, xxiii, 8vo, Paris, 1831. 



3 Elemens d'Anatomie Generate, pp. 81-3, 8vo, Paris, 1827. 



4 Tent. Exp. quaedam de Sang. Comp. p. 15, 8vo, Edinb. 1814 ; Journal of Science 

 and the Arts, ed. at the Royal Institution, vol. ii, p. 248, 8vo, Lond. 1817 ; Philoso- 

 phical Transactions, 1822, pp. 273-4. 



6 Outlines of Lectures on Human Physiology, p. 60, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1817. 



6 Lectures on the Blood, pp. 28 et seq., 8vo, London, 1819. 



7 Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. xvi, pp. 293 et seq., 8vo, London, 1830. 



8 Mailer's Physiology, tr. by Dr. Baly, vol. i, p. 110, 8vo, London, 1838, 1st edit, 



9 Works, ed. by Mr. Palmer, vol. iii, pp. 17, 20, 24, 8vo, London, 1837. 



10 Philosophical Magazine, vol. ii, pp. 131 et seq., July to December, 1827. 



11 Mr. Grainger, Elements of General Anatomy, p. 46, 8vo, London, 1829. 



