REVIEW. 
411 
as to convert the sympathy at first felt for the great 
philosopher’s sufferings into admiration for the great truths 
to which they served to give immovable foundation. 
We have been induced to pen these general reflections on 
some of the vicissitudes of scientific inquirers, as the most 
appropriate introduction to a brief comment on the remark- 
able example of the value of experimental investigations, 
furnished by the three memoirs of Mr. James Turner, the 
President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, whose 
spirit of penetration appears to have anticipated by ten years 
the remarkable discovery of Dr. Richardson, as to the cause 
of the blood’s coagulation, to which the last Astley Cooper 
Prize of three hundred guineas has been awarded. A series 
of the most beautiful researches of modern times led the 
learned Doctor to the conclusion that the cause of the blood’s 
coagulation is the escape of ammonia, the presence of which 
is essential to the blood’s fluidity. We hope, ere many weeks 
elapse, to have before us the promised work of Dr. Richardson, 
already announced as far advanced in type; meanwhile, we 
have said enough to make appreciated the following quotation, 
with which Mr. Turner concludes the third memoir — 
6t The most difficult problem in physiology which remains 
to be solved in these enlightened days is the rationale of the 
coagulation of the blood. Here John Hunter himself met a 
barrier that his genius never surmounted, as his published 
works testify. 
tc To all inquirers into the phenomena of animal life who 
have halted to think for themselves, there has always been a 
void, a link of the chain wanting, in this division of science. 
Writers of the greatest research have especially pointed to the 
vitality imparted to the blood by its contact with living 
vessels, and thus reasoned on its fluidity. The more I reflect 
on this theory, the more I am convinced that it is in accord- 
ance and association with the retention of a volatile constituent 
of the blood, with which, ere long, we shall find it our business 
to become better acquainted.” 
And in other parts of his memoirs our author insists upon 
a gaseous current as constant and retained within the blood- 
