726 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
REMARKS ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE BLOOD, AND 
PRINCIPALLY WITH REFERENCE TO THOSE DISEASES 
OF CATTLE AND SHEEP IN WHICH THE FLUID UNDER¬ 
GOES IMPORTANT PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES. 
By James Beart Simonds. 
{Concluded from p. 6 1J.) 
In the cattle plague of Eastern Europe—the pathology of 
which terrible scourge was recently investigated and reported 
on by us to the Society *—the presence of the materies morbi 
in the blood leads to an exudation of the fibrine from the 
capillaries of the mucous membranes. The blood of such 
patients does not clot after death, but remains perfectly fluid 
in all the larger vessels, and particularly in the veins, from 
being thus ifefibrinated. Convalescence is a sure sign of 
the reappearance of the fibrine; and if, at that time, blood 
be experimentally drawn from an animal, it be found to form a 
soft gelatinous mass, the density of which will be in proportion 
to the extent of the re-established health. 
A loss of fibrine also so far alters the viscidity of the blood, 
that it does not circulate so perfectly through the capillaries 
as it otherwise would do, which produces a tendency to con¬ 
gestions, haemorrhages, &c. 
From what has been advanced it will be inferred that 
nutrition is mainly due to the fibrine, and as an appropriation 
of it for this purpose takes place in the systemic capillaries 
proper to each organ, so, on comparing its quantity in the 
arterial with that in the venous blood, a slight difference 
will be observed. According to Muller, the proportion is as 
twenty-nine to twenty-four, the larger amount necessarily 
existing in arterial blood. 
Chemically considered, there is not much difference be¬ 
tween albumen and fibrine, while, on the contrary, both the 
physical anti vital properties of the two fluids vary, as we 
have seen, to a very considerable extent. Much more might 
be said respecting this constituent of the blood, but it is 
unnecessary to add to these remarks, except to state that, 
united with the serum, as we find it within the vessels, it con¬ 
stitutes the true liquor sanguinis. 
* The Royal Agricultural Society. 
