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ME.  J.  LISTEE  ON  THE  EAELT  STAGES  OE  INFLAMMATION. 
The  huffy  coat  in  inflammatory  blood  was  first  explained  by  ^Ir.  Whaktox  Joxes*. 
who  showed  that  it  resulted  from  the  red  corpuscles  aggregating  more  closely  than  usual, 
and  therefore  falling  more  rapidly  through  the  lighter  plasma,  so  as  to  leave  the  upper 
portions  completely  before  the  occurrence  of  coagulation.  It  was  supposed  by  the  same 
authority  that  this  peculiarity  of  the  red  discs  was  due  to  increased  fibrine  in  solution, 
rendering  the  liquor  sanguinis  abnormally  viscid,  and  so  operating  like  the  admixture 
of  gum  above  alluded  to.  But  the  fact  that  the  corpuscles  aggregate  as  closely  after 
the  fibrine  has  been  removed  as  before,  appears  quite  opposed  to  such  a wew.  I have 
examined  many  drops  of  my  own  blood,  before  and  after  the  removal  of  its  fibrine,  with 
the  special  object  of  ascertaining  this  point,  and  have  never  been  able  to  detect  any 
material  difference  between  the  aggregation  in  the  two  sets  of  cases.  In  the  blood  of  the 
bat  before  mentioned,  which  was  probably  suffering  constitutionally  from  inflammation, 
the  corpuscles  continued  to  retain  their  excessive  adhesiveness  for  a whole  horn-  after 
coagulation  of  the  fibrine.  I once  made  a similar  observation  on  a specimen  of  horse’s 
blood  f , which,  as  is  well  known,  presents  the  bufi'y  coat  in  the  state  of  health.  Ha’ving 
divided  the  clot  vertically  several  hours  after  coagulation  had  occurred,  my  attention 
was  attracted,  on  looking  at  the  section,  by  minute  red  points,  like  grains  of  sand. 
Ijdng  in  the  lower  part  of  the  buff,  just  above  the  coloured  portion  of  the  coagulum. 
On  microscopic  examination  of  a small  piece  containing  some  of  them,  they  proved,  as 
I expected,  to  be  masses  of  aggregated  red  corpuscles,  but  with  the  peculiarity  of  being 
compact  and  globular  instead  of  presenting  the  usual  appearance  of  a network  of 
rouleaux,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  corpuscles  had  been  excessively  adhesive  at  the 
time  when  aggregation  took  place.  Some  of  the  red  discs  were  now  squeezed  out  from 
the  fibrinous  mass  in  which  they  lay,  and  as  they  escaped  into  the  sm-rounding  serum 
they  at  once  adhered  firmly  in  that  fluid,  forming  again  compact  globular  masses,  such 
as,  if  in  freshly-drawn  blood,  would  necessarily  give  rise  to  the  buff}"  coat ; so  that  theh 
adhesiveness  seemed  to  have  been  in  no  way  affected  by  the  withdinwal  of  the  fibiine 
from  solution.  It  may  of  course  be  urged,  that  the  fibrine,  when  in  solution,  may  have 
impressed  upon  the  corpuscles  an  adhesiveness  which  they  retained  after  soaking  for 
hours  in  serum,  but  this  seems  a very  unlikely  hypothesis.  I suspect,  therefore,  that  the 
peculiarities  of  the  corpuscles  of  inflammatory  blood  are  the  result  of  other  changes  than 
the  excess  of  fibrine. 
From  the  facts  detailed  in  this  section,  it  appears  that  the  aggregation  of  the  cor- 
puscles of  blood  removed  from  the  body  depends  on  their  possessing  a certain  degree  of 
mutual  adhesiveness,  which  is  much  greater  in  the  colourless  globules  than  in  the  red 
discs ; and  that,  in  the  latter,  this  property,  though  apparently  not  depending  upon 
vitality,  is  capable  of  remarkable  variations  in  consequence  of  very  slight  chemical 
changes  in  the  liquor  sanguinis. 
* Britisli  and  Foreign  Medical  Eeview,  October,  1842. 
t This  observation  was  made  subsequently  to  the  reading  of  the  paper,  viz.  in  November,  1857. 
