INJECTING PUS INTO THE VEINS OF ANIMALS. 
105 
by Mr. Lee that “ the simple experiment of mixing some pus 
with healthy recently drawn blood, will at once show that 
such a combination cannot circulate in the living body. It 
will be found that the blood coagulates round the globules of 
pus, and forms a solid mass which will adhere to the first 
surface with which it comes in contact, and it will be evident 
that it is not till the coagulum thus formed is broken up or 
dissolved that its elements can circulate with the blood.” 
Upon this passage I thus commented in a memoir on pyaemia, 
published in the ‘Association Medical Journal/ for March 4th. 
“ To argue, as Mr. Lee does, from the fact that out of the 
body blood coagulates round pus, therefore such a combina- 
tion cannot circulate in the living body, is about as warrantable 
as it would be to predicate from the observation that pure 
blood coagulates in a basin, it therefore cannot remain fluid 
in the ventricles of the heart. The fact is, that the circum- 
stances are so materially different, blood in an earthen vessel, 
on the one hand, blood in the living body, on the other, that 
no inference deduced in the one case is applicable to the 
other.” The results of my experiments justify this criticism, 
and prove that the circulation of pus with the blood is 
perfectly possible. 
Mr. Henry Lee has related seven experiments in which he 
injected pus into the veins, and they call for careful study. 
In the first of them (the vith of his series, op. cit., p. 28), 
three drachms of pure pus were injected into the left bronchial 
vein of a healthy ass. When the operation was completed, 
the sides of the vein were brought together with a pin, and 
the animal was allowed to get up. The vein above the 
opening could now be felt as a hard unyielding cord, as high 
as it could be traced with the hand ; but upon gentle pressure 
being made, so as to propel the blood in the course of the 
circulation, the hardness completely disappeared. Two hours 
and a half after the operation, the pulse, which naturally was 
36, had risen to 60; and the respiration, from 12 per minute, 
had increased to 26. The animal was destroyed two days 
after the injection. 
Post-mortem appearances .— The wound in the left leg opened 
directly into the brachial vein, which was filled with lymph 
and a thin pus for a very short distance, both above and 
below the external opening. Immediately above this the 
vein was healthy ; nor was there any appearance of disease 
in any of the other veins of the limb, nor in the veins leading 
to the heart. The glands in the axilla were swollen. The 
lungs were found studded irregularly in different parts with 
circumscribed spots of livid congestion ; these existed both 
xxvn. 14 
