1888.] Prof. Hay craft and Mr Carlier on Fluid Blood. 131 
being received into fluids having surface-tensions which differ from 
it, such as oil and paraffin. 
These experiments bring one to the threshold of an inquiry as to 
what can be the action of a chemically inert solid — such as glass 
or porcelain — when it produces by mere contact such important 
changes in the blood. Methods already discovered for keeping 
blood fluid when removed from the body cannot be applied to the 
human subject, and it was our wish to obtain some method by 
means of which we could experiment with our own blood, and 
one which might be available clinically. The following method 
exceeded the anticipations we had formed of it, for we have only 
on one occasion failed to keep blood in a fluid state for half-an-hour 
to an hour — as long, in fact, as our experiments lasted. 
A cylindrical vessel, about 1 -6 inch wide and about a foot long, 
is filled with castor oil. The finger of the experimenter is greased 
and plunged within the oil. It is then pricked, and the exuding 
droplets gradually sink in the vessel. This is then filled to the 
brim, the finger having been withdrawn, and it is covered by a slip 
of glass. When the droplets have nearly reached the bottom of the 
vessel — in about fifteen minutes — it is inverted, and the drops will 
again fall. It may be inverted again and again as desired. In this 
way the drops are prevented from coming in contact with the walls 
of the vessel. After about five minutes the droplets separate each 
one into two layers. The corpuscles sink to the bottom, and form 
a red layer, and the plasma remains at the top. If the drops be 
withdrawn from the oil after half-an-hour or so, they are seen to be 
perfectly fluid, coagulating, however, some three or four minutes 
after they have come in contact with solid matter. 
3. The Formula of Morphine. By R. B. Dott, F.I.C., and 
Ralph Stockman, M.D. 
(From the Materia Medica Department, Edinburgh University.) 
As the alkaloid morphine, discovered in 1804, wns the first sub- 
stance of the kind known, it naturally received a good deal of atten- 
tion. Some years later the new base was analysed by several 
distinguished chemists, but their results did not lead them to a 
formula accurately indicating the composition of the alkaloid. To 
