CHAPTER IV. 



SOME FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE COAGULABLE LYMPH, AND 

 ON THE SUDDEN CHANGES PRODUCED UPON IT. 



IF the reader has been persuaded of the common opinion, 

 that the disposition of the blood to coagulate is increased in 

 inflammatory disorders, it may perhaps appear to him, as it for- 

 merly did to me, a very extraordinary circumstance that the con- 

 trary should be true (see Note xxi) ; and likewise that the blood 

 should in reality be the more disposed to concrete, in proportion 

 as the body is weakened, or as the action of the blood-vessels is 

 diminished (see Note xxiv). And as we are naturally tenacious 

 of old opinions, and unwilling to adopt new ones till fully proved, 

 he may suspect that there has been some fallacy in these experi- 

 ments. And indeed I must acknowledge that there is, in ap- 

 pearance, one strong argument against my general conclusion, 

 which is, that it has not only been remarked that the first cup 

 has a crust, whilst the last has none, but likewise, that the second, 

 or the third cup, alone shall have a crust, whilst the preceding 

 ones are without it. Now this, I say, seems contradictory to what 

 I have advanced, concerning the disposition of the blood to 

 coagulate being increased in proportion as the body is weakened; 

 for here in proportion as the blood is evacuated, its disposition 

 to coagulate is lessened ; since it was more sizy in the second 

 or third cup than in the % first. But, in answer to this objec- 

 tion, I must remark, that these cases very seldom occur; and 

 that in general the first cups are more sizy, and are the latest 



is not coagulated. Dr. Davy has favoured me with the following extract 

 from his note-book : " March 3 1 , 1 84 1 , killed a tortoise, just then awaking 

 and almost torpid ; the air 50 ; air of room 55 ; temperature in recto 

 48 ; blood from right auricle 50 ; in left compartment of ventricle 5 1 -5. 

 In the cavity of the belly a good deal of colourless fluid, which jellied 

 on standing. But little blood in the heart and great vessels, which, when 

 coagulated, was very tender, like the thinnest jelly. March 7, 1836, killed 

 and examined a hedgehog ; the blood coagulated slowly and feebly." 



