THEORY OF COAGULATION. 657 



the blood drawn during nearly all cases attended 

 with slowness of coagulation, excepting those that 

 are marked by a great loss of vitality, and gene- 

 ral prostration of the system. 



It has been maintained by many physiologists, 

 including Scudamore and Miiller, that the relative 

 proportion of fibrin in the blood is augmented 

 during inflammation, and that this is the cause of 

 the buffy coat, an opinion which has been com- 

 pletely refuted by Dr. John Davy, who has shown 

 that healthy blood contains more fibrin than in 

 cases of inflammation. But although he admits 

 that " very buffy blood is very slow in coagulat- 

 ing," and that in healthy blood the process is 

 rapid, he maintains with Hewson, that in some 

 cases, owning to a thinness, tenuity, or liquidity 

 of the fibrin, the red particles may subside from 

 one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in two minutes, 

 and sufficiently to cause the buffy appearance. 

 (Anat. and Physiological Researches, vol. ii. p. 

 43-6.) 



The true state of the facts is, that in all cases 

 of protracted disease in which the chemical func- 

 tion of the lungs is seriously deranged, the pro- 

 portion of both fibrin and red particles is more 

 or less diminished, as proved by Denis and Le 

 Canu, and the process of coagulation retarded ; 

 while it is equally certain, that in the early stages 

 of inflammation, congestion, fever, and other 

 forms of disease, in which the function of respi- 



