THE BLOOD. 75 



strength with which the vessels acted upon the blood. And 

 to this opinion I was led by the well-known fact, that bleed- 

 ing weakens the body ; and as bleeding which weakens the 

 body had here removed the size, by thickening the lymph, 

 and by disposing it more to coagulate, I thence inferred that 

 it was by its weakening the body, or the action of the 

 vessels, that it had produced those changes on the lymph. 

 The consideration of what takes place in inflammations con- 

 firmed me in this opinion; for in them the blood-vessels are 

 known to act more strongly, and it is proved above, that the 

 lymph is proportionably thinned, and has its disposition to 

 coagulate proportionably diminished (XLVIII). 



And this opinion was further strengthened by observing 

 what occurs when an animal is bled to death, or when the ves- 

 sels are acting with the lowest degree of strength ; for here it 

 was found that, in proportion as the strength of the animal was 

 reduced, the blood was more and more disposed to coagulate 



(XLIX). 



And having thus observed the connexion between the altera- 

 tions in the lymph and changes in the strength of the blood- 

 vessels in these cases, I next inferred there might be the same 

 correspondence, even in others where the changes in the pro- 

 perties of the lymph are more sudden, as in Experiment 27th, 

 where there was no size in the first cup, but a thick one in the 

 third ; and even this case, when carefully examined, confirmed 

 the inference ; for the blood-vessels were found to be acting 

 with different degrees of strength, at the very time that the 

 lymph was found to have different properties. And the only 

 difficulty that remained here was to explain how it should 

 happen that the first cup, contrary to what in general takes 

 place, should have its blood coagulated in less time than the 

 second or third ; and this I concluded was owing to some 

 febrile cause affecting or oppressing the patient, in which con- 

 clusion I am confirmed by the fact admitted amongst physicians, 

 that the pulse is frequently oppressed in inflammatory dis- 

 orders, and rises in strength in proportion as blood is taken 

 away. 



(XLVIII.) See Notes xxi, xxm, and xxix. 

 (XLIX.) See Note xxiv. 



