REVIEW. 
411 
review is one, doubting, with our friend, the legitimacy of all the 
Hunterian theories, and unable to trace any necessary connexion 
between the coagulation and the vitality of the blood, and unable 
also to see more in the blood steam than a halitus or gas, which 
uniformly, necessarily, arises from a warm fluid surrounded by a 
colder one, may hesitate to acknowledge that, with regard to this 
gas or steam, “ the present generation of philosophers are doomed 
to the humiliating task of retracing the steps of the ancients, 
upon more important points than one vitally connected with the 
animal economy.” 
The present work is confined to an examination of the contents 
of the arterial vessels. The subject is very ingeniously treated, 
and the experiments are judiciously selected. We will give a 
sketch of one of them. Hunter had frequently laid bare the ca- 
rotid artery of animals for about two inches in length. He then 
tied a thread round it at each end, leaving this space of two inches 
in length between each ligature, filled with blood. The external 
wound was loosely stitched up. Several hours afterwards, he 
opened the stitches, and found that the blood was coagulated, and 
of a dark colour, the same as in a vein. 
Mr. Turner contrived an instrument, by means of which he sud- 
denly seizes an inch and a half of the carotid artery of a living 
animal, so as to cause an instantaneous imprisonment of its con- 
tents in their transit. The isolation of the arterial trunk and its 
contents is made in a moment. This portion is cut out with a 
pair of scissars, and placed in a medium temperature for three 
hours, in order that the blood may die, if die it will. 
At the end of four hours he opens the vessel ; and what does he 
find? — -Not the coagulation which Hunter was accustomed to see; 
but a fluid “of a bright scarlet colour, and of remarkable tenuity, 
and instantly separating into two distinct parts, red particles — he 
does not say globules — and a transparent liquid, thin and almost 
colourless, exactly resembling condensed vapour. No fibrine in 
solution, or held in suspension,. — no jellying, — no solidification, — 
not a particle would adhere to a pin’s point, or even to its head.” 
In another place he asks, What is this? “ Is it blood ? I do not 
know. It appears to the eye like condensed steam or vapour, of a 
bright red hue, but exceedingly thin and transparent. The colour- 
ing particles gravitate, and a limpid fluid floats on them. Not a 
particle of coagulum is to be seen nor detected hours afterwards. 
The red particles adhere tenaciously to the dish, but the delicate 
fluid evaporates rather quickly.” 
“ To account for this difference in the results of the two opera- 
tions, physiologically, in all their bearings, would,” says the author, 
“ be no easy task. For my own part, I shall not pretend to it 
