240 CIRCULATING FLUIDS: 



The quantity of the fibrin is sometimes found to be very 

 much increased, while in other cases it is present only in such 

 very small proportions that no clot is formed. The blood will 

 sometimes be found to be very rich in solid constituents, and 

 especially in blood-corpuscles ; while at other times it will be 

 so poor as to resemble coloured water. In some instances the 

 corpuscles will sink rapidly in whipped blood ; while in others 

 they will only deposit themselves slowly and imperfectly, so that 

 merely a thin layer of serum remains above them. It will also 

 sometimes contain substances which are not found in it in a nor- 

 mal state, as colouring matter of the bile, sugar, or urea. All these 

 are deviations from the normal state of the blood; and if we 

 term that blood healthy, which is constituted in the ordinary 

 manner, and properly discharges its various functions, we are 

 perfectly justified in considering blood as diseased which does 

 not fulfil these conditions. 



The analyses published by Andral and Gavarret,i in their 

 elaborate essay upon this subject, correspond in their results, 

 generally speaking, with those instituted by myself. They, 

 however, usually assign a higher proportion to the corpuscles 

 (especially in the blood during inflammatory diseases) than I 

 have found to occur. It is hardly probable that such differences 

 should arise from the geographical positions of the observers, 

 although, generally speaking, the blood may be richer in solid 

 constituents and in corpuscles, in southern than in nortliern 

 regions : it is more likely that they are caused by the diff'erent 

 methods of analyses pursued by the French observers and my- 

 self. I have tried both methods, and consider it useful, if not 

 necessary, to state the results of my trial. 



In the analyses of Andral and Gavarret, the blood is received 

 into two six-ounce vessels. The first and fourth quarters are 

 received in one vessel, the second and third in the other. In 

 one, the blood is allowed to coagulate spontaneously ; in the 

 other, it is whipped, in order to obtain the fibrin, which must 

 be carefully washed. When the coagulation is effected, the clot 

 must be carefully removed from the serum, and we must dry 

 («) the fibrin which has been obtained by whipping one portion 

 of the blood; {b) the serum; and (c) the clot. By weighing 



' Annal. de Chiiuic et dc Phys. vol. 75, p. 225. 



