COAGULATION OF FIBRINE IN EFFUSED BLOOD. 213 
collection of pus from its gravitation between the skin and 
the muscles, for the depth of several inches. After removing 
it by pressure, &c., a weak solution of Zinci Sulph. was 
injected, a mild stimulant applied externally, and the parts 
retained in apposition by a bandage, with the happiest results. 
The emphysema has passed away, and the general state of 
the skin is normal. As to the trachea itself, the opening gra- 
dually became more and more limited, and the escape of air 
and matter less in proportion. The muscles have now 
acquired their natural tone, and press firmly upon the wind- 
pipe. The side-sticks were recently removed, and the wound 
having become closed, a stimulant was used to disperse a 
slight and general swelling around the lower part of the 
neck, the only present indication of the original injury. 
ON THE COAGULATION OF FIBRINE IN EFFUSED 
BLOOD. 
By A. J. Owles, Y.S., Carabiniers. 
Having a somewhat singular case of sanguineous effusion 
under my care, I send you a short account of it, as I think 
it interesting, not so much, however, in itself as a case, as in 
showing the power of the fibrine to coagulate in the living 
body, free from the other components of blood, when the 
liquor sanguinis is extravasated. Although there is nothing 
new in this fact, still the changes which take place in inflam- 
mation are so important, a3 well as the great tendency to 
asthenic inflammation which exists among our patients, that 
I trust you will think the case of sufficient importance to be 
an excuse for my troubling you with the particulars 
It is sometimes difficult to reconcile the morbid appear- 
ances after death with the symptoms during life, so great is 
the change from the healthy state of the part affected ; or the 
symptoms, perhaps, are not calculated to lead one to sus- 
pect these great alterations till it is too late, and hence it is 
by studying the changes themselves, as also the w^ay they 
are produced, that we can best form a correct opinion of 
the nature of a disease. 
Effusion of the liquor sanguinis, and coagulation of its 
fibrine, appear to me also to be about the most fatal and 
insidious result that the kind of inflammation alluded to 
