THE BLOOD. 21 



for cold lias no such effect, nor has rest in a sufficient degree, 

 because the coagulation of the blood in the basin takes place 

 in a few minutes, whilst that which is merely at rest in the 

 veins is not completely coagulated in three hours or more. 

 Yet the blood is in time completely coagulated merely by its 

 being at rest in the veins ; but then in this case it coagulates 

 in a different manner from what it does in the basin ; and as 



found that the irritability of the muscular fibre was not destroyed in a 

 guinea-pig which had been instantly killed by an electric shock. 



Dr. Andrew Smith commonly saw coagulated blood in the hearts of 

 antelopes run down by dogs. In a hunted hare Dr. Davy saw, he in- 

 forms me, some coagulated blood. So jdid I in one that had been run 

 for thirty-five minutes and then killed by the Windsor harriers ; it was 

 immediately gutted, and I examined it four hours afterwards. After 

 pressing blood into the jugular veins, portions of them were removed 

 and laid aside with the contained blood ; it never coagulated. There 

 were some small but distinct clots in both ventricles of the heart, all 

 the cavities of which were otherwise empty. In the left pleura there 

 was upwards of a quarter of an ounce of thick yet fluid blood, which 

 never clotted; but in which, when mixed with water and filtered, some 

 small fibrinous flakes were found. The heart was hard and contracted ; 

 the limbs, especially the hind ones, were quite rigid. Besides, I have 

 been assured by old' and observant sportsmen, that when a fox has been 

 run very hard he stiffens quickly, in the hind limbs especially, so that 

 you may hold out his body by them horizontally. Finally, as to a blow 

 on the stomach : In a cat killed by a kick, which ruptured the stomach 

 and liver, 1 found coagulated blood in the heart, and the limbs rigid, 

 seventeen hours after death. Some cases in which the blood did not 

 coagulate after death are mentioned in Note xxxiu. 



Mr. Hunter, p conceiving coagulation to be an act of life, maintained 

 that the blood coagulates by virtue of its living principle. If we admit 

 this hypothesis, we must also admit that we can pickle the life (see 

 Note vn) ; that it is preserved after repeated freezing and thawing (see 

 Note xi) ; and, as Dr. Davy remarks,* 1 that the blood may remain alive 

 many hours after the death of the body, when the muscular fibre has 

 lost its irritability, the limbs have stiffened, and even partial decompo- 

 sition has begun (see Note x). Besides, a mixture of two varieties of 

 perfectly clear serum will coagulate spontaneously, as I have witnessed 

 after filtering them four days after they were drawn from the living human 

 body (see Note xvin)'; and M. Denis r states that fibrin may be dried 

 and powdered, and yet possess the power of self-coagulation when 

 dissolved in a neutral saljt and diluted with water. 



J. Davy's Researches, ii, p. 74. r Essai sur 1' Application de la Chimie a 

 P Works, ed. by Palmer, iii, pp. 34, 113. 1'Etudie physiologique du Sang de 



1 Researches, ii, 122. 1'Homme, p. 72, 8vo, Paris, 1833. 



