116 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
December 24th, 8 a.m.—Increased turbidity. Peritoneum much swollen 
and milk-white; the muscle nearly milk-white; the liver a pale yellowish 
grey. 
Peritonceum bottle; under microscope, multitudes of young cells and 
granules were floating about in the fluid;* peritoneum granular, with 
many young, round, nucleated cells sticking all over it. (Bad light; very 
wet day.) 
Liver very friable ; quantities of young cells with well marked edges 
and nuclei, mostly one, some two, a few three. The usual liver cells were 
dark, with many dark spots, not removable by acetic acid. 
Muscle: no cells except a few adherent to it. No trace of striation, 
but very opaque fine granules (commencing fatty degeneration). 
At length it occurred to me that defibrinated blood would be the best 
nutrient fluid for mammalian tissues. After numerous experiments, many 
of which were failures owing to the want of suitable apparatus, and the 
extreme difficulty of keeping the blood at the temperature desired, ranging 
from 100° to 105° F., the following were found to be the conditions under 
which inflammation in detached portions of the body could be carried as far 
as the production of pus. 
The blood should be obtained from an animal rapidly killed by violence, 
not poison. It should be defibrinated by whipping, and the agitation of the 
blood should be continued until the whole has become bright scarlet, and 
thoroughly oxyginated.+ The parts to be operated on, which should if 
possible be from an animal of the same species as that from which the 
blood is taken, are then to be placed in a glass vessel containing a quantity 
of the blood—the more blood the better ; for instance, 4 fluid oz. of blood 
would be a fair allowance for a sheep’s eye. The vessel must be closed to 
prevent evaporation of the watery parts of the blood. Open vessels are 
found not to answer, the blood gets thick very soon. This glass vessel 
must be placed in a water bath, which must be kept at a temperature of 
100° to 105° F. This is the most difficult part of the process. Until one 
has watched a thermometer for some hours, it will hardly be believed, how, 
with the same degree of applied heat, the temperature of the water bath 
will vary. As the temperature of the room falls or rises, so the applied heat 
has to be adjusted, and a few minutes neglect will suffice for the whole 
iEiseh ene eee nae 
* Subsequent researches made it probable that these were not derived from the 
peritoneum itself but from the lymphatic vessels and their contents, contained within the 
folds of the mesentery. 
t The blood always becomes of a dark venous hue after being exposed to the tempera- 
ture indi¢ated for a few hours, 
