TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 89 
distinct subjects : 1. On the Condition and the vital Powers in Ar¬ 
teries leading to inflamed parts, (in continuation of those on the same 
subject read to the Section in 1834) ; and 2. On the immediate Cause 
of Death in Asphyxia. 
He connected them with one another by some preliminary obser¬ 
vations on the importance of establishing the truth, and, as far as 
possible, determining the applications of the principle to which the 
term spontaneity of movement in the fluids of living bodies has been 
applied, i. e. of movements of the fluids in living bodies, which are 
dependent on their living state, but independent of any contraction 
of their living solids. 
In proof of the truth of this principle he stated that many facts 
might be adduced; and the immediate object of the statements now 
made was to prove that without reference to this principle it is im¬ 
possible to explain two sets of phenomena, which have been care¬ 
fully observed, and are of essential importance,—the changes in the 
motion of the blood which attend inflammation, and those which result 
from the application of oxygen to the blood in respiration. 
On the first point, he detailed the result of two examinations (in 
addition to those formerly reported) of the arteries of limbs of 
horses killed on account of injury and inflammation of single joints, 
in one case of three weeks’, in the other of eight days’ standing. The 
power of contracting on a distending force, and expelling their con¬ 
tents, was tried in the arteries both of the inflamed and the sound 
limbs, by the same contrivance as was used by Porseuille to compare 
the contractile power of living and dead arteries ; i. e. by using bent 
tubes and stopcocks in such a way as to distend a given portion of 
artery (first of the one limb and then of the other,) by water pressed 
, into it by a firm weight of mercury, and then allowing the artery to 
expel the distending water, and getting a measure of the force which 
it exerts in doing so, by the rise of the level of water in a tube com¬ 
municating with the artery. The result was in both cases in ac¬ 
cordance with the observations formerly made, that the artery of the 
inflamed limb exerted less power of contracting on, and expelling its 
contents, than that of the sound limb. The difference was as 10 to 
16 in one case, and as 125 to 175 in the other, which was the more 
satisfactory of the two, as the experiment was made more imme¬ 
diately after death. 
It appeared also, on careful comparative examination, that the 
contraction of the emptied arteries at the moment of death (which 
is the measure adopted by Parry of the vital power of arteries) was 
less in the diseased than in the sound limbs; the difference between 
the contracted state immediately after death, and the subsequently 
dilated and dead state of the artery (28 hours after death), being 
Jth in the case of the diseased limb, and -yrd in that of the sound 
limb. 
It appears, therefore, that in all arteries of such size as to admit 
of measurement, and which supply inflamed parts, the only vital 
powers of contraction, which experiments authorize our ascribing to 
the coats of these vessels, is diminished during inflammation; and it 
