152 ON THE STATE OF THE BLOOD AND 
is evidenced by opacity of the affected part, by thickening of the 
margins of the wound, and in the process of granulation. 
CHAPTER IV. — Of the State of the Blood and the Blood- 
vessels in Inflammation, from the Application of a strong 
Solution of common Salt to the Web. 
Section 1 . — Description of the Mode in which Congestion and 
Stagnation take place. — “ A solution of common salt applied to 
the web causes dilatation of the arteries and acceleration of the 
flow of blood in them, and, of course, in the capillaries and veins 
also. If the solution of salt, however, be strong, the acceleration 
of the circulation soon gives place to retardation from congestion 
and commencing stagnation of the blood corpuscles. Eventually 
the circulation is altogether arrested in the part, the blood 
having become stagnant in a greater or less number of vessels, 
according to the intensity and extent of the action of the salt. 
“ Stagnation commences in the capillaries, and extends from 
them to the veins on the one hand, and to the arteries on the 
other. The mode in which it is seen to take place is by red 
corpuscles, more collapsed and darker-looking than natural, first 
adhering to the walls of the vessels, and then other red cor- 
puscles adhering to them. The first adhesion of red corpuscles 
to the wall of a vessel usually takes place at a bifurcation.” 
The portion of artery between the capillaries in which stag- 
nation has taken place, and the first large branch above, con- 
tains but few blood corpuscles, and these are seen collected to 
one side of the vessel, and oscillating up and down. 
“ Not many colourless corpuscles are seen in the vessels in 
which the blood is stagnant ; but they are seen in considerable 
numbers in those veins in the neighbourhood in which the flow 
of blood is still free, though, perhaps, retarded.” The ap- 
pearance of an uniform red mass within the vessels is produced 
by the close agglomeration of the red corpuscles. 
Section 2. — Explanation of the Mode in which Congestion 
and Stagnation take place. — Mr. Jones having ably and ef- 
fectually disproved the notion that the dilatation of the arteries, 
and the coincident change in the rapidity of the flow of blood 
through them, have any effect in inducing stagnation in the 
capillaries, advances the opinion, “ that the adhesion of the red 
corpuscles to the walls of the vessels, and to each other, on 
which the stagnation depends, can be attributed only to a 
change in the state of the blood itself, produced by the action of 
the salt, — a change consisting in inspissation of the plasma, as 
regards its albuminous and fibrinous constituents.” The salt, 
Mr. Jones further thinks, acts principally by withdrawing water 
