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ON THE STATE OF THE BLOOD AND THE BLOOD- 
VESSELS IN INFLAMMATION, 
ASCERTAINED BY EXPERIMENTS, INJECTIONS, AND OBSERVATIONS 
BY THE MICROSCOPE. 
[The “Astley Cooper” Prize Essay for 1850.] 
By T. Wharton Jones, F.R.S. Guy’s Hospital Reports, 1850. 
The triennial prize of 300 guineas, bequeathed by Sir Astley 
Cooper, was last year awarded to Mr. Wharton Jones. The 
subject chosen for the Essay was “ On the State of the Blood 
and the Bloodvessels in Inflammation.” It will be remembered 
that the first of the Astley Cooper prizes was obtained by Mr. 
Simon, for his Essay on the Thyroid Gland. The Anatomical 
Structure and Diseases of the Supra-renal Capsules was the 
subject of the second Prize Essay. As, by the tenor of the 
will, the money was obliged to be given to the author of the 
best essay sent in, it is reported that the trustees were un- 
willingly compelled to bestow it on a gentleman whose paper 
was considered to be very unworthy of the reward. 
The subject for the Prize Essay for 1850 was most judi- 
ciously chosen, and richly has Mr. Wharton Jones deserved the 
prize he has gained. To our mind, the Astley Cooper Prize 
Essay for 1850 is a model of what such an Essay ought to be. 
Mr. Wharton Jones had previously contributed largely to our 
knowledge on the subject of inflammation, by his able reports 
on that process, published in the 17th and 18th vols. of The 
British and Foreign Review. His ability and large experience 
as an ophthalmic surgeon have enabled him to enrich his Essay 
with apt illustrations drawn from inflammation of that organ, in 
which, in the human subject, the phenomena of that process are 
best studied. 
In the Introduction Mr. Wharton Jones states that he has, in 
the first place, attempted to determine, by observation and ex- 
periments on the living frog, 
“ 1st. What the action of the vessels is, and what the mani- 
festations of that action are ; 
“2d. What the effect of the action of the vessels is on the 
flow of blood 
And “then the state of the blood and of the bloodvessels in 
inflammation as it occurs in that animal.” Subsequently the 
knowledge' thus obtained, supported by observations on the 
