550 ROYAL SOCIETY FOR PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 
was made three hours after the death of the horse; but I 
obtained essentially similar results on repeating the experi¬ 
ment in another horse an hour after death, so that there can 
be no doubt whatever that the fibrin was in the same con¬ 
dition as it is in the blood-vessels of a living animal. The 
observation appears also particularly satisfactory on this 
account, that the liquor sanguinis was not separated from the 
corpuscles by any process of transudation through the walls 
of the blood-vessels, which might be conceived to involve 
retention of some constituent of the liquid, which, though in 
solution, might be unable to pass through their pores; but 
simply by the subsidence of the corpuscles, which must have 
left all the materials of the liquor sanguinis behind them. 
Hence it is proved, beyond question, that if the liquor san¬ 
guinis could be separated completely from the blood-cor¬ 
puscles, it would resemble the fluid of hydrocele in being 
incapable of coagulation when shed into a cup. 
Now this struck me as a very satisfactory and beautiful 
truth, inasmuch as it clears away all the old mystery of the 
distinction between inflammatory exudations and dropsical 
effusions. Dropsical effusions, exhibiting little disposition 
to coagulate, have been supposed to consist almost exclu¬ 
sively of serum, and the exudation of the entire liquor san¬ 
guinis has been regarded as the special characteristic of 
inflammation, and very unsatisfactory theories have been put 
forward by ingenious pathologists to account for this dif¬ 
ference. But it now appears that a dropsical effusion like 
that of hydrocele is undistinguishable from pure liquor 
sanguinis. 
{To be continued .) 
ROYAL SOCIETY EOR THE PREVENTION OE CRUELTY TO 
ANIMALS. 
The annual meeting of the above society was attended by 
a large and fashionable audience. The Earl of Harrowby 
presided. 
The Secretary read the report, the leading features of 
which were as follows:—After announcing the acquisition to 
the Council of his Imperial Highness Prince Louis Lucien 
Bonaparte, and the efforts which have been made to obtain 
an enactment in Italy for the protection of animals, it is 
