212 
ON THE FORMATION OF THE BUFFY COAT OF THE 
BLOOD. 
By George Gulliver, F.R.S., Surgeon in the Royal Regiment 
of Horse Guards. 
After noticing the well-known fact, that the red corpuscles will 
sink much faster in the entire blood, while the buffy coat is form- 
ing, than they will do in the serum alone, the author remarks that 
two of the most eminent authorities on the physiology of the blood, 
Mr Hewson and Dr. Davy, concluded that the rapid sinking of 
the corpuscles on which the huffy coat depends is due to an atte- 
nuation of the liquor sanguinis. On the contrary, Professor Her- 
mann, Nasse, and Mr. Jones, attribute the quick sinking of the 
corpuscles to their increased aggregation in inflammatory blood. — 
British and Foreign Medical Review , No. 28. 
Finding that the blood of the horse generally affords a buffy 
surface, measuring as much perpendicularly as the lower red part 
of the blood clot, the author made many experiments on the sink- 
ing of the red corpuscles in the liquor sanguinus in the serum, and 
and in these fluids variously altered in viscidity and specific gra- 
vity. The experiments are particularly detailed, in order that 
they may be easily repeated, and that no errors may arise from 
the different effects which Mr. Prater has shewn may be pro- 
duced by different quantities of the same substance. 
The author is of opinion, that if we admit the sinking of the 
red corpuscles affords an accurate test of the consistency of the 
liquor sanguinis, we must also admit the improbability that the 
liquor sanguinis becomes thinner some minutes after the blood has 
been received in a vase, at which time the falling of the red cor- 
puscles is most rapid. 
The author asks whether the well-known utility of saline me- 
dicines in inflammation may not be explained by their effects in 
preventing or destroying the aggregation of the red corpuscles, 
and in preventing or lessening the buffy or inflammatory condition 
of the blood. 
The author arranges some of his conclusions as follows : — 
First, There is a remarkable acceleration, after a few minutes, 
in the ratio with which the blood corpuscles sink in the liquor 
sanguinis. 
Second, This acceleration may be increased by increasing the 
aggregation of the corpuscles ; and prevented or removed, by pre- 
venting or destroying the aggregation of the corpuscles. 
Third, The sinking of the corpuscles is slower in blood thinned 
by weak saline solutions, than when mucilage is added with the salt. 
