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THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. IV. 
SEPTEMBER, 1831. 
No. 45. 
ANATOMY OF THE HORSE. 
[Continued from page 245.] 
Section III. 
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. 
THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM COMPRISES THE RLOOD, THE 
BLOODVESSELS, AND THE HEART. ’ ' 
OF THE BLOOD. 
BLOOD is the red fluid we see issuing from a fresh wound, 
and of which there is a considerable quantity circulating through 
the body of a living animal. So uniform is it, while circulating, 
in its appearance, that it looks like a simple or homogeneous fluid ; 
a character it does not lose until some time after it has been 
drawn out of the body, and then it gradually assumes a change 
from a fluid into a solid mass, resembling-jelly. In the fluid 
state it possesses a faint odour, a saline flavour, has an adhesive 
unctuous feel, and is some little (specifically) heavier than water: 
the latter being equal to 1000, blood may be estimated at 1090. 
Also, so long as it continues warm, it is perceived to emit from 
its surface a halitus , or vapour; which is nothing more than ordi¬ 
nary steam, excepting that the evaporation may carry up with it 
minute particles of animal matter: a circumstance that will 
account for the peculiar odour it is known to convey. 
. It has been observed that blood, soon after its removal from 
the body, concretes into a solid gelatinous mass. This spontane¬ 
ous change, called the coagulation, proceeds gradually to com¬ 
pletion, until we discover the formation of two very different com¬ 
ponent parts : one solid, denominated the clot , or crassamentum; 
the other fluid, named the serum. The process of coagulation is 
completed in the blood of the horse in about twenty-five minutes : 
in that of a man it requires only seven. The relative proportions 
of the crassamentum and serum will be found to vary in the 
blood of different animals, and in that even of the same animal 
vol. iv. u 3 
