VACUITY OF THE ARTERIES AFTER DEATH. 219 
the commission that inoculation gives security to cattle 
against the disease, either in an absolute, or even temporary 
manner. 
Second. That the fluid extracted from the diseased lung 
when inoculated into an animal is not distinguished in its 
consecutive effects by any specific characters from those 
which are produced by other organic matters placed in the 
same condition. 
The Minister of the Interior concluded by stating that 
the report would be immediately published, and that the govern- 
ment would, if it were necessary, do its best to stimulate the 
zeal of the commission in making further experiments upon 
bovine animals. 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
ON THE VACUITY OE THE ARTERIES AETER DEATH. 
A paper on the above subject was introduced by Dr. 
Thudichum at a meeting of the Physiological Society , London, 
the report of which we extract from “ The Lancet P 
The reader submitted the part to analysis, and came to 
the result that the arteries contain air and vapour, sometimes 
blood, like the veins, and chords of blood. Air and vapour are 
found in the large majority of cases, and the vacuity of blood 
is the rule. This vacuity is said to be caused by the con- 
traction of the arterial system. The different modes of con- 
traction supposed to be necessary to effect that result, were then 
adverted to, and compared with the observations of the con- 
tractibility of the arteries made on the living, dying, and dead 
subject. No experiment showed those contractions supposed 
to be indispensable for the object of emptying the arteries. 
Besides this w ant of every direct proof, many anatomical and 
pathological facts are against that theory. The vertebral and 
carotid arteries were quoted as examples, which, by their 
fastening to bony canals, could not contract. Rigid, ossified, 
atheromatous arteries, and large aneurisms, none of w hich 
can ever contract, are found empty, and from this reason the 
author concluded that there must be some other cause which 
empties the arteries after the cessation of the heart’s action. 
This cause is no doubt the sum of the diffused forces at the 
capillary system. Some facts derived from comparative and 
