234 
M. G. HAYEM. 
fioin being formed, us lias been said by some observers of white 
globules, this mass is composed of the hematoblasts,which were lit¬ 
tle by little stopped at the time of the hemorrhage, and when this 
ceases these elements are seen to be almost notably altered, and 
nndei close observation may be observed undergoing the charac¬ 
teristic changes already mentioned. 
The hematoblasts which serve as a closing cork contain only 
a small number of red globules. Those are spherical, smooth 
on their surface, and non-adherent, as a careful observer may 
discover, as, owing to their amoeboid contractility they may be 
seen to move away from the mass of the hematoblasts, as they 
do in the blood placed between two pieces of glass. They do 
not seem, then, to participate at all in the stoppage of the blood, 
and still they possess their physiological properties and their 
normal anatomical characters, the hematoblasts of the hemos¬ 
tatic cork being already deeply modified. 
In this process the edges of the wound seem to act as a foreign 
body, and it is easy to determine directly how the hematoblasts 
act towaids such a body introduced into the circulation. A fine 
needle slightly curved, and armed with a silver or platinum 
wire, is forced through the jugular vein of a dog, for instance, and 
a centimetei of the wire left in the vessel. When the operation 
is skillfully performed scarcely one drop of blood will appear at 
either the point of entrance, or that of the withdrawal of the 
needle. After two or three minutes (a sufficient time in the dog, 
whose hematoblasts are easily wounded) the venous portion 
occupied by the wire is emptied by means of two ligatures, one 
the peripheric the other on the central extremity. This portion 
of the vein is immediately removed, and after having been dipped 
into a liquid to lix the elements of the blood, it is opened. The 
wire will be found already surrounded with a greyish layer, at 
intervals slightly rosy, composed of numerous hematoblasts, the 
moie easily recognized as the wire has remained the least time 
within the circulating blood. If the wire remains a longer time 
in the blood and its covering becomes more voluminous, the con¬ 
stitution of the wire will then be entirely analogous to that of 
the hemostatic nail which we have described. 
