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In thefe experiments on human blood beginning 
to putrefy, I have likewifc obferved fome of thefe 
veficles break into pieces, without becoming fp'neri- 
cal i and I have diftinftly perceived the black fpot 
in the center fi flu red through its middle, another 
proof that it is not a perforation. 
In the blood of an eel, which \vas beginning to 
putrefy, I have feen the veficles fplit and open, and 
the particle in its center come out of the fiflure. 
As the putrefaction advances, thofe veficles which 
had become rough fpheres, or like mulberries, and 
thofe which had been merely fiflured, each break 
down into finaller pieces. M. de la Torre fee ms to 
think they have joints, and break regularly into fe- 
Ven parts; and Leeuwenhoeck fufpeCtcd thefe glo- 
bules, as he called them, were confiantly made of 
fix lefier globules. But from observations I am 
L 7 
convinced there is nothing regular or conftant in the 
number of pieces into which they break. I have 
teen them fall into fix, feven, eight, or more pieces, 
by putrefaction ; for putrefaction breaks them down 
in the manner it detlroys other animal folids. 
I need hardly take notice, that the fmall pieces 
into which the veficles break are equally red as the 
veficle it fell. The theory of the red globules be- 
ing compofed of fix ferous ones compacted together, 
and the ferous globules of fix of lymph, has not the 
leaft foundation, and is entirely overthrown by the 
fimple experiment ol mixing the blood with fix or 
with thirty-fix times its quantity of water ; for the 
■water diflolving the globules ought to reduce them 
to yellow ferum, or colourlefs lymph but it does 
•* See Gdubii Path ©log ia. 
2 
not ; 
