591 
COMPTE-RENDU OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
VETERINARY SCHOOL AT ALFORT. 
[Continued from page 152.] 
THE CHAIR OF P ATHO LO G Y, THE R A PEUTICS, AND MEDICINE, 
Professor M. Delafond. 
This talented Professor has occupied himself on a question 
of legal medicine, which gave rise to some long and important 
discussions in the Royal Academy of Medicine. The question 
agitated was, whether the kidneys of animals secreted urine during 
acute empoisonment with arsenious acid, as M. Orfila had main- 
tained, or whether the urinary secretion was no longer carried 
on, as MM. Flandin and Danger asserted. M. Delafond has 
endeavoured to resolve this question by large doses of arsenious 
acid being given to some horses and dogs. The numerous expe- 
riments to which this Professor had recourse have been satis- 
factory, in his opinion, that the secretion in acute arsenious em- 
poisonment is not suppressed, but merely diminished — that the 
urine, naturally expelled, runs from the bladder during life, or is 
collected in it after death, and that the apparatus of Marsh always 
exhibits certain portions of arsenic in a state of purity. From 
these results, M. Delafond thinks that he is justified in conclud- 
ing that in the acute empoisonment of animals by arsenic, it will 
always be possible to discover this violent poison, and to detect the 
criminal by the method of proceeding by Orfila, or by the ap- 
paratus of Marsh. 
The same Professor is occupied in bringing to perfection an 
instrument to put to the test the physical properties of the blood, 
and to which he has given the name of the kematom^tre. It consists 
of three probes, an areometre and a thermometre. The apparatus 
is, however, very portable, and the blood collected in any proper 
vessel, after its coagulation may be carried to a considerable dis- 
tance without injuring the expulsion of the serum from the inte- 
rior of the clot. 
In concert with MM. Andral and Gavarret, M. Delafond has 
been employed in a quantitative analysis of the organic elements 
of the blood in all kinds of domestic animals, in a state of health 
or disease. It resulted from the analysis of the blood in nearly 
200 bleedings, that that of young pigs of the Anglo-Chinese race 
contains most fibrin, and the blood of the deg the least. 
The blood of the dog contains the greatest quantity of globules, 
and that of cattle the fewest. 
4 i 
VOL. XVI. 
