Volume 1

A treatise on the blood, inflammation, and gun-shot wounds / by the late John Hunter.

  • Hunter, John, 1728-1793.
Date:
1812
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the blood, inflammation, and gun-shot wounds / by the late John Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    39/512 (page 23)
    In animals possessed of red blood, two modes of investigation may be adopted. One of these respects the blood while it is circu- lating, when the colour makes its motion visible, and gives an idea of the circulation in the smaller vessels. Accidents, operations, and anatomical knowledge of the vessels in which the blodd is contained, have at the same time assisted us to form more perfect ideas of its motion in the larger vessels. The other mode, which is that of examining the blood when out of the body, enables us to observe whatever relates to its spontaneous changes and separa- tion, together with the apparent properties of each component part. Its chemical properties become known likewise by this second mode, though without throwing much light on the nature of the fluid itself. The blood is called a fluid, because it is always found in a fluid state in the vessels of a «/ living animal, while under the influence of the circulation; yet it is not, under all circum- stances, naturally so; for of one part of it, when not circulating, solidity is a necessary and essential property; fluidity being only ne- cessary at the time of circulation for its motion, distribution, and the easy separation of its parts. Without being fluid, it could not be pro-