WOUNDS PENETRATING INTO THE CHEST. 9 
side, but a vesicular noise was evident at every other part of the 
chest. 
The horse ate his litter. 
On the following; day there was nothing remarkable in the 
movements of the flanks, except that they were more than 
naturally prolonged, and that the expiration commenced with a 
sudden fail of the flanks. The warmth of the extremities, and 
of the legs, had returned. 
On the following day the convulsive action resembling bro¬ 
ken wind still remained. 
The horse was destroyed at the close of that day, and about 
forty-eight hours after the injection of the blood into the chest. 
We found in the left thoracic cavity a clot of blood, weighing 
two pounds, or thereabouts : its surface was covered with a kind 
of pellicle, analogous to what w^e should call a serous membrane. 
The colour of the superior part of the clot was of a lighter 
tint than the inferior part. The clot was generally of a very 
dark hue. 
There was a small quantity of serosity, of a strong blood- 
colour, in both the sacs of the pleura, and these sacs communi¬ 
cated together. 
The portions of the pleura which were not in contact with the 
clot did not present the slightest trace of inflammation. On 
the border of the w^ound which was made in order to effect the 
injection the subpleural vessels were distended with blood, and 
there was evident inflammation. The lungs were sound. 
It appears by this experiment, that we may introduce with 
impunity, more than four pounds of blood into the thoracic 
cavity; and that the greater part of it is absorbed in the space 
of two days. 
We varied this experiment by injecting the same quantity of 
blood, and not destroying the horse until ten days had expired. 
We found nothing but a fluid of the colour of wine-lees in the 
inferior part of the pleural cavity into which the injection w'as 
made. There w'as no appearance of inflammation, except about 
the edges of the wound. 
8. Shnple wounds, with the injection of blood drawn irnme- 
diateli/ from the jugular, and with the introduction of air j or a 
greater or less length of time. 
It would have been necessary here to have repeated that 
which we said of w'ounds in the chest, with the effusion of 
blood from the intercostal artery, and witli the introduction of 
air, had we not remarked, that the blood which proceeds from 
the jugular changes more rapidly than arterial blood. It w'as 
easy to foresee this, because, in the first case, it was venous 
VOL. VIII. c 
4 
