66 Researches Regarding Cholera : The Blood. [part i. 



see them practically tested by those who have the opportunity of doing so. The 

 observations here recorded are submitted as facts ; in no instance has an observation 

 been included which had not been witnessed by both of us ; any observation one 

 may have made, which had not been verified by the other, has been allowed to 

 stand over. The interpretation which we have ventured to put on some of these 

 observations may of course be erroneous, but the facts have, to the best of our 

 ability, been accurately recorded, so that no one need be led astray by any faulty 

 inferences of ours. 



We have, as far as possible, carefully avoided the introduction into the text 

 of any descriptive terms involving the acceptance of a theory, although it wo aid 

 have been in some cases very convenient to have adopted some of the ingeniously 

 coined words lately admitted into our medical vocabularies. To the authors of some 

 of the terms which we have employed we are particularly indebted, and we wish 

 specially to acknowledge the aid we have received from a study of the writings of 

 Professors Beale, Burdon Sanderson and Bastian. 



Our report has been divided into three parts; the first containing a description 

 of the microscopical appearances of the blood in cholera \ the second giving an 

 account of a series of experiments on the action of solutions of organic matter 

 from various sources and in various stages of decomposition on living animals ; and 

 the third, on the effect of section of certain nerves. 



I. MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATIONS OF HUMAN BLOOD. 



A.— Results of microscopic examinations of the blood in cholera, together with 

 a description of the methods adopted. 



Although results of careful examinations of the chemical characters of the blood 

 in cholera have been frequently made, investigation of the microscopic characters 

 presented by it, and more especially of the changes and developments occurring 

 in it when removed from the body, has been comparatively neglected. As the 

 subject is one of very great importance, and is daily becoming more so on account 

 of the ideas now prevalent regarding the disease, it has been carefully investigated, 

 and the general results, attained from numerous series of experiments, are briefly 

 stated below. Any system of examination not allowing of prolonged and continuous 

 study of individual specimens of blood, as well as of exact observation of their 

 characters when first removed from the body, is necessarily unfitted to furnish 

 trustworthy information, and before entering on the subject, it became necessary 

 to devise means suited to the attainment of both these ends by making continuous 

 examinations of the blood. 



