THE BLOOD. 99 



chitis, acute articular rheumatism, erysipelas, and pneumonia, 

 the proportion varied from 6 to 7 and 8 ; in acute inflamma- 

 tions occurring in healthy individuals, it oscillated between 6 

 and 8 ; and in a less number of cases between 7 and 10. 

 The highest scale recorded by M. Andral is 10 : and this 

 was met with only in pneumonia, and acute rheumatism, 

 while the lowest was only 4 : this scale borders upon that 

 which is regarded as normal, and is encountered only in 

 sub-acute inflammations. 



It is not merely, however, in pure and extensive cases of 

 inflammation that the proportion of fibrin in the blood 

 becomes augmented, for we find it also increased in every 

 organic affection which is accompanied by even a slight 

 degree of inflammation : thus in phthisis, at the period of 

 the elimination of the tubercle, as well as in cancer, in which 

 there is inflammation of those portions of the organs, the seat 

 of the disease which immediately surround the tuberculous, 

 or cancerous deposit, we have also an increased amount of 

 fibrin in the blood. This increase, even in the last periods of 

 the disorder in phthisis, rarely exceeds 5 parts in the 1000. 

 The blood in consumption exhibits then not merely an excess 

 of fibrin, but also a depreciation in the proportion of its red 

 element to the extent shown under the heading Ancemia. 



There is one condition of the system compatible with a 

 state of health, under which also the proportion of the fibrin 

 in the blood is augmented, and that is gestation. It is stated, 

 however, by M. Andral, that this increase manifests itself 

 only in the three last months of pregnancy, previously to 

 which the scale of the fibrin is found to be slightly depre~ 

 ciated. This augmentation goes on increasing from the sixth 

 to the ninth month, and is greatest at the completion of the 

 term of utero-gestation, which fact offers a satisfactory 

 explanation of the reason of the liability to inflammatory 

 attacks on the part of women recently delivered. The con- 

 dition of the blood, therefore, in the last periods of pregnancy 

 is allied to that state of the vital fluid which is especially 

 indicative of the existence in the system of an inflammation. 



The characters presented by the clot in inflammation are 



i 4 



