120 Transactions. — MiscettaneoUL 



The piece of liver was soft, of a pale fawn colour. It was not examined 

 microscopically. 



The eyes were in the condition described above. 



The pericardium was distended with serum, tinged bright red with 

 blood ; the wall of the left ventricle contained a black clot. 



In a similar experiment performed with puppies, I find it noted that 

 " striped muscular tissue shows nuclei very distinctly ; no blood corpuscles 

 amongst the muscular fibres ; blood in capillaries has all disappeared." 

 This is invariably the case. [See note ante.] 



In one puppy, when a portion of pericardium had been removed imme- 

 diately after cessation of respiration, during a condition of entire uncon- 

 sciousness, but the heart having beat a few times, I find it noted " the chest 

 and membranes wounded appear inflamed ; pericardium found clouded with 

 leucocytes." In this case the puppy was poisoned with hydi'ocyanic acid. 



To conclude. The experiments, of which I have given a very brief 

 account, and which have been carried on with intervals for several years, 

 extend to hundreds of observations. They show that in parts of the body 

 separated from the trunk after somatic death, the phenomena of inflamma- 

 tion as far as the production of pus may be produced by immersion for 

 some hours in defibrinated blood, at a temperature of 100° to 105° F., or in 

 albuminous fluids of the same temperature capable of supplying them for a 

 short time with nourishment. It will be observed that true nutrition does 

 not occur ; there is no evidence that the structures grow ; they do not 

 assimilate to themselves the elements necessary for their growth or repro- 

 duction ; they degenerate ; they take on a lower form of life, but still it is 

 Hfe after a kind. The highest forms of tissue, like muscular fibre, simply 

 undergo fatty degeneration ; cell structures take on a lower form of cell 

 structure without differentiation. 



I have given an epitome of some of the observations made without 

 attempting to theorize on them. Should this paper receive any attention,! 

 may pursue the subject, but in this remote corner of the world, without 

 access to libraries, without personal communication with men engaged in 

 similar pursuits, and with most imperfect apparatus, there is not much 

 encouragement to persevere. 



