THE BLOOD. 103 



There is one disease, viz. scurvy, in which a condition of 

 the blood, as regards its fibrin, exists analogous to that which 

 characterises fevers, and in which also the same tendency to 

 repeated hemorrhages and to the formation of petechia3 

 belongs, as is witnessed in fevers. 



It is a question for consideration whether the deficiency of 

 the fibrin referred to is the real cause of the proneness of the 

 blood to decomposition and dissolution ; and whether, if this 

 be the case, there is not some other prior cause which leads 

 to and regulates the extent of the diminution of the physio- 

 logical standard of the fibrin. 



The experiments of Majendie show that the mixture of 

 certain alkaline substances with the blood not merely preserve 

 it in a fluid state, but restore to it the fluid form, even after 

 it has once coagulated. M. Majendie injected into the veins 

 of living animals a certain quantity of a concentrated solution 

 of the subcarbonate of soda, and found that in the dead 

 bodies of these animals the blood was almost entirely in a 

 fluid state, and that even during life they presented many of 

 the symptoms which are acknowledged to denote a state of 

 dissolution of the blood. 



The alkaline condition of the blood in scurvy, in which 

 the proneness to hemorrhage is so great, is well known. 



A fluid state of the blood is said to exist in those who 

 have died from the bite of serpents, and it is most probable 

 that in like manner the effect of the imbibition of a poisonous 

 miasma is to cause the blood to retain its fluidity. 



The deplorable effects which sometimes ensue from a dis- 

 section-wound are most probably due to the entrance into 

 the blood of a poisonous matter, and in fatal cases we have 

 all the signs indicative of a dissolution of the blood. 



It is likewise asserted, that any violent impression made 

 on the nervous system, either through the influence of some 

 strong moral emotion, or as the result of a blow, especially 

 on the pit of the stomach, an electric shock, as of lightning, 

 retards, or altogether prevents, the coagulation of the blood, 

 while at the same time it destroys life, That the same effect 

 is likewise produced, though in a manner less obvious and 



