THE BLOOD. 125 



what we know of the physiology of the liver : the latter, on 

 the contrary, agrees perfectly with the biliary functions of 

 this organ, the coloring matter of the bile being identical 

 with hematoidine, one of the derivatives of the blood. It is 

 useless to object that we find colored bile in animals whose 

 blood is colorless (the invertebrate) ; for Rouget has found 

 colored globules in many of these animals, and in others 

 hemoglobuline, or a substance analogous to it, is found in a 

 diffuse state, dissolved in bloody serum. This has been 

 proved by Fumouze, by the aid of spectral analysis, even in 

 the case of animals whose blood appears quite colorless, .and 

 we may thence conclude that the liver is one of the places in 

 which the old red globules are destroyed. 



Liguor. The liquid part of the blood (liquor or plasma 

 of the blood) may be considered as a solution, of albumen, 

 containing besides several salts, fats, extractive matters, and 

 gases. 



The liquor is a fluid comparatively loaded with albumen, 

 containing nearly one-tenth, a proportion rarely met with in 

 the other fluids of the system. A small part of this albu- 

 men (2 grammes to 1 litre of blood) coagulates spontane- 

 ously: this is called fibrine. The rest (70 to 75 grammes to 

 a litre of blood) is albumen, properly so called, which coag- 

 ulates only by the action of heat or of chemical reagents. 



The fibrine is the cause of the coagulation of the blood, 

 that is to say, of the phenomena by which, on leaving the 

 vessels, the blood is solidified into a jelly-like mass. It is the 

 fibrine alone which is coagulated in this case, and forms a kind 

 of net in which the other elements of the blood, and espe- 

 cially the globules, are imprisoned. We do not mean by 

 this that the fibrine becomes a fibre, as its name would ap- 

 pear to indicate ; it forms, rather, a sort of spongy mass, 

 containing in its meshes all the other parts of the blood. 

 As coagulation proceeds the liquid part takes the form of 

 serum, a limpid or slightly opaline liquid, which contains 

 albumen and the various salts of the liquor; the coagulated 

 mass which floats forms the clot. The clot must not be con- 

 founded with the cruor / it is the fibrine containing the 

 cruor : neither is the serum synonymous with the liquor, it 

 being the liquor without the fibrine. 



It is not ascertained what circumstances are most favor- 

 able to the coagulation of the blood. It is hindered by cold, 

 and accelerated by contact with the air. Beating, which is 

 employed to defibrinate the, blood, acts only by rendering 



