80 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1736. 



Eight ounces of blood being taken away ; instead of serum, nothing appeared 

 above the coagulum but this white liquor, resembling milk, which Dr. S. poured 

 off to the quantity of about 4 oz. at first there was no smell perceptible; but in 

 6 days it began to have the smell of rotten eggs : it stood in a room where there 

 was a fire, for some hours of the day, for 3 weeks more, in which time it did 

 not alter its consistence nor smell. 



The patient had eaten very little for a week before Dr. S. first saw him ; and 

 only a little of a calfs foot stewed, the night before, for supper, and no break- 

 fast that day. He was addicted to drinking strong pale malt liquor every day 

 he was in health. 



If this be chyle, it is a substance very different from milk, which is apt to 

 turn sour and thick by keeping, and never contracts the putrid smell of rotten 

 eggs, as this did. Whether it be not chyle turned putrid, and near to puru- 

 lency, by a long circulation in the blood-vessels, but not converted into blood, 

 through some defect in the sanguification, is a question which probably cannot 

 be decided, without more observations and experience.* 



The coagulum of the blood was covered with a sizy pellicle, about the thick- 

 ness of a shilling. The red part was of a grumous, tender, incoherent con- 

 sistence. 



Though he was much better in a week's time, the Doctor ordered 5 oz. of 

 blood to be taken away, to see what change had been made ; and he found the 

 coagulum covered with a sizy pellicle to the thickness of half a crown, the red 

 part of a due consistence, the serum clear, without any chyle. 



The urine became clear, and he recovered in about 2 weeks after the Doctor 

 had first seen him. 



^n Account of what was observed on opening the Corpse of a Person who had 

 taken several Ounces of crude Mercury internally ; and of a Plum-Stone lodged 

 in the Coats of the Rectum. By Dr. Madden, of Dublin. N° 442, p. 29 1, 



Some time ago Dr. M. was present, with Dr. Robinson, and Mr. Nichols, 

 surgeon-general at Dublin, at the opening the body of a gentleman in that 

 town, who for several years had found great difficulty in going to stool. This 

 disorder increased on him towards the latter end of his life, and he was seized 

 with a violent distemper, of which Dr. M. says he could give no description, 

 having never attended him. In order to procure a passage downward, which 



* It was probably the albuminous fluid existing in an excessive proportion in the blood ; and if so, 

 it would have yielded a coagulum had it been exposed to a sufficient degree of heat j but to this 

 simple test it was not lubjected. 



