VACUITY OF THE ARTERIES AFTER DEATH. 221 
valves in the splenic vein. He (Dr. Crisp) said that this was 
not a matter of opinion, as he had shown valves in the splenic 
vein of many animals at that Society, and he had found, 
moreover, that other veins connected with the portal system, 
in several of the lower animals, were abundantly supplied 
with them. He had seen no evidence, under the microscope 
nor elsewhere, of the active local contraction of an artery, 
and the fact alluded to by Dr. Thudichum respecting the 
circulation of the blood in bony arteries went far to disprove, 
he thought, the assertion respecting their muscular power. 
He (Dr. Crisp) had exhibited at that Society the bony arte- 
ries of an old lady eighty-eight years of age ; yet up to within 
a short period of her death all the functions of the body were 
well performed. 
Dr. Richardson reasserted the correctness of Harvey’s 
theory as to the emptiness of the arteries. He repeated 
many of the arguments used by him at the first meeting of 
this society in the present session, but added several more, 
tending to confirm more fully the views he supported. Thus 
the arteries were invariably as full as the veins in the still- 
born foetus, and were, as a general rule, left full in cases of 
immediate death, as from lightning, concussion, and rapidly 
acting poisons. The question of the contractility of the 
arteries was only incidental to the general point which he 
urged, for the Harveian theory extended as much to the left 
side of the heart itself as to the arteries. He did not deny 
the capillary force, but gave several experiments which 
supported it. 
Dr. Snow supported Dr. Thudichum in all his arguments. 
He did not believe that the right side of the heart exerted 
a suction power sufficient to attract the flow of blood towards 
it from the veins. In an experiment with chloroform, per- 
formed lately on a guinea-pig, he (Dr. Snow) had observed the 
heart beating for more than a minute after the breathing had 
ceased. On opening the body of this animal, he found a 
small quantity of blood in the aorta — a circumstance which 
was rather opposed to the Harveian deduction. 
Dr. Chowne urged that the mere ocular observation of an 
animal would not, while the attention was also being directed 
to the beat of the heart, determine whether some slight respi- 
ratory movement was going on. Dr. Richardson’s statement, 
also, that an empty state of the arteries of the newly-born 
child might be taken as one sign of the respiration having 
been established, must be received with consideration and due 
care. Dr. Chowne then attempted an explanation of his own 
as to the emptiness of the arteries. When the left side of 
