278 CIRCULATING FLUIDS : 



circumstances of temperament, age, &c. may induce a state of 

 the blood partially approximating to hyperinosis, or to liypinosis. 

 Contradictory results may also arise from variations in treat- 

 ment, as far as venesection is concerned. We know, for in- 

 stance, that in France the lancet is used with an unsparing 

 hand ; and if venesection be ordered in a case of erysipelas in 

 which no serious inflammatory affection is present, it is by no 

 means impossible that the blood may exhibit the character of 

 hypinosis. In Germany, on the contrary, venesection is seldom 

 prescribed unless decided inflammatory symptoms present them- 

 selves; in this case the blood is sure to exhibit the characters 

 of hyperinosis. Schonlein states that in erysipelas the serum 

 is always tinged yellow by the colouring matter of the bile ; 

 that the proportion of the serum to the clot is large ; and that 

 the consistence of the clot is inversely as its size. These cha- 

 racters decidedly indicate a state of hyperinosis. 



Andral and Gavarret have made eight analyses of the blood 

 of five persons, four of whom were suffering from erysipelas of 

 the face, and one from inflammatory erysipelas of the foot. In 

 seven of these cases the fibrin was materially increased ; in three 

 instances it amounted to 5-0, in three to 6-0, and in one to 7*0. 

 In a much shorter and milder case, in which there was but little 

 fever, it amounted to only 3*6. 



Their analyses gave the following results : 



1 



The large amount of corpuscles associated with the slight 

 increase of fibrin in the fifth case is explained by the circum- 

 stance of the attack being very mild, and the constitution par- 

 ticularly strong. The reverse is seen in the first case, in which 

 the blood was taken from a woman wlio had been scrofulous 

 from her vouth. 



