52 PROPERTIES OF THE BLOOD. 



into a cup, and was found to be fluid; at the end of fifteen 

 minutes above one half was still fluid ; in twenty-five minutes 

 it seemed to be quite jellied. Now as in this experiment a 

 similar effect was produced, as when the vein was put into 

 water, it seems probable that it was the coldness of the water, 

 and of the oil, which had lessened the disposition of the lymph 

 to coagulate. 



EXPERIMENT XXVI. 1 



Another piece of the same vein was put into river-water, in 

 which the thermometer stood at 38, and was left till the next 

 morning; when, after twenty-two hours and a quarter, it was 

 taken out. The red particles did not seem to have subsided, 

 as in the former experiment ; but the vein being opened the 

 blood was found to be fluid, though so viscid that it could barely 

 drop from the vessel. The cup into which it was received was 

 placed upon the window of a moderately warm room, and was 

 examined carefully from time to time ; but the blood never had 

 any appearance of coagulation, on the contrary, it remained 

 fluid till it was dried by the evaporation of the water, which 

 happened by the next day. In this experiment the cold seemed 

 entirely to have prevented the coagulation of the lymph : so 

 ill-founded is the common opinion, that cold coagulates the 

 blood. 



As the lymph, on being cooled, is deprived of its power of 

 coagulating when exposed to the air, may we not thence be led 

 to explain that fact mentioned by Lister, that the blood of 

 those cold animals which sleep during the winter-season, on 

 being let out into a basin, does not coagulate ? (xxvii.) And 

 thence, as he observes, remains always fit for motion. 



1 It is necessary to observe here, that great expedition should be used in making 

 these experiments, for, unless the vein be cut out in a few. minutes after the death 

 of the animal, the experiment may not succeed, from the blood having begun to 

 coagulate. 



(xxvii.) Mr. Hunter a quotes Mr. Cornish as having seen the blood 

 of torpid bats in some degree coagulated, but soon recovering its fluidity 

 when subjected to motion and heat : Mr. Palmer adds in a note, that 

 Dr. Marshall Hall, in his experiments on hybernating animals, found 

 the blood as fluid as under ordinary, circumstances. M. Saissy b states 

 that the blood of hybernating animals, even during the deepest lethargy, 



a Works, ed. by Palmer, vol. iii, p. 33. 



b Researches Exp. sur les Animaux hybernans, p. 46, 8vo, Paris, 1808. 



