250 CIRCULATING FLUIDS: 



hence the density of the serum is not much affected. The 

 fibrin is quite uninfluenced by venesection, and its amount is 

 determined by the nature and intensity of the disease. The 

 extractive matters and salts are unaltered. There is a slight 

 diminution in the amount of fat. The various salts are un- 

 affected, and the iron, in consequence of its relationship to the 

 corpuscles, is diminished. In short, the effect of venesection is 

 to cause a great diminution of the corpuscles, while it only 

 slightly lessens the amount of albumen.^^] 



THE FIRST FORM OF DISEASED BLOOD, HYPERINOSIS.l 



Chemical characters of the blood. 



The blood contains more fibrin than in the normal state, and 

 the corpuscles decrease in proportion to the excess of fibrin; 

 the fat is also increased. In proportion to the increase of the 

 fibrin and fat, and the decrease of the corpuscles, the whole 

 solid residue will be diminished.^ 



Physical characters of the blood. 



The blood coagulates more slowly than in the normal state ; 

 the clot is usually not small, but very firm and consistent, and 

 does not break up for a considerable time. It is almost in- 

 variably covered with a true buffy coat, (which is produced by 

 the sinking of the corpuscles before the occurrence of coagu- 

 lation, and by the subsequent coagulation of the fibrin in the 

 layer of serum. )^ This buffy coat is firm, tough, and intimately 

 connected with the clot; its edge is often turned upwards, and 

 its surface uneven.^ If the clot is small, the buffy coat and 



' Derived from v-rng and i, "ivoq, the fibre of flesh. 



2 Nasse (Das BUit in mehrfacher Beziehung, &c.) has arrived at similar conclusions ; 

 for he observes that the corpuscles and the fibrin are generally in an inverse ratio, 

 and that blood exhibiting a decided genuine buff'y coat is usually of low specific 

 gravity, that is to say, the amount of water is increased. 



^ [The huffy coat does not consist of true fibrin, but of the binoxide and tritoxide 

 of protein. (See page 10.)] 



'' The bufi'y coat is not exclusively connected with an inflammatory state of the 

 blood ; it occurs in other diseases, as, for instance, in chlorosis, but its properties 

 are then very difl'erent. A very elaborate disquisition on the formation, and the 

 proximate and remote causes of the bufi'y coat, occurs in Nasse's work, pp. 36-57' 

 and 204-240. 



i 



