THEORY OF COAGULATION. (J49 



of a weak or phlegmatic constitution ; while its 

 contractile power is diminished by whatever im- 

 pedes the function of respiration, as in phthisis, 

 asthma, disease of the heart, the cold stage of 

 fever, and all maladies of long standing, by which 

 the powers of life are greatly reduced. 



As a proof of the first proposition, and corres- 

 ponding with the highly organized state of the 

 blood in birds, together with its bright florid hue, 

 we are informed by Denis, that when poured 

 from the divided vessels of a decapitated fowl, it 

 coagulated almost instantaneously, and formed a 

 very firm clot. Dr. Davy also states, that he 

 observed the blood of a fowl to become solid in 

 less than a minute at the ordinary temperature 

 of the air ; but when suddenly cooled to 40 by 

 means of ice, in something less than three mi- 

 nutes. (Op. cit. p. 76.) He also found that the 

 arterial blood of sheep and lambs coagulates 

 much sooner than that drawn from the veins.* 

 And it is generally known, that the blood of 

 dogs, sheep, rabbits, and other active mammalia, 

 (whose temperature is higher than that of man,) 

 becomes solid in a shorter time ; or in from one 

 to three minutes in the former, and in from two 

 to five minutes in the latter, during health. 



Having ascertained that a mixture of arterial 



* The same thing has been observed in the blood of birds and 

 other mammalia, by Denis and Berthold; which I have also re- 

 peatedly witnessed in the slaughter house. 



