Dr. Davy’s observations on the 
272 
that the buffy coat is principally owing, not to the slow coagu- 
lation of the blood on which it appears, but to its increased 
tenuity; or, in other words, to the diminished viscidity of 
coagulable lymph, the effect of morbid vascular action con- 
nected with the inflammatory diathesis ? 
Mr. Hey has asserted, in opposition to Mr. Hewson, that 
the coagulable lymph is not itself attenuated in inflammatory 
diseases, and that when it appears to be so, it is from dilution 
with serum.* Were this opinion correct, such blood should 
be of low specific gravity, which it is not, as I have satisfied 
myself by numerous experiments, made both in this country 
and in Ceylon. In general, I have found the blood, on which 
a buffy coat has appeared, of higher specific gravity than 
healthy blood. 
2. It is an opinion pretty generally prevalent, that the age 
of these morbid adhesions, which are so frequently met with 
in the dissection of bodies, connecting together serous mem- 
branes, may be guessed at by their strength : thus, weak 
adhesions are usually considered of recent origin, and firm 
adhesions, of long standing. Is this opinion correct ? And, 
does it agree with the properties of coagulable lymph, of 
which these adhesions are principally formed ? Many circum- 
stances, of which it will be sufficient to mention a few, lead 
to a reply in the negative. 
Wounds, it is well known, that heal by the first intention, 
are often firmly united in twenty-four hours. 
I have observed strong adhesions formed in the same space 
of time between the surfaces of the pleura, in consequence of 
inflammation artificially excited. An instance maybe given. 
» Observations on the Blood, by William Hey, F. R. S. London, 1779 , P- 47-49* 
