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

  • Hunter, John, 1728-1793.
Date:
1823
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 the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    pretty equal quantity of matter coagulable by heat, or princi- pally of that coagulable by Goulard's extract; I therefore col- lected the several kinds, not only those which may be called natural, but also those proceeding from disease, which appear more like serum than the others. Of the natural, I took the aqueous humour of the eye, and first heated it in a spoon, to see what quantity of coagulable matter by heat was in it, and I found it became gently wheyish ; therefore it had a small por- tion of matter coagulable by heat; but, upon adding the ex- tract to it, it coagulated immediately. The same exactly hap- pened with the water in the ventricles of the brain, and also with the tears. Water was taken from the leg of a dropsical boy, who was extremely reduced by a compound fracture of the opposite thigh bone ; which water was much clearer than any serum. Upon heating it in a spoon over a candle, it became a little wheyish, and had a few flakes of coagulum floating in it. The water from the abdomen of a lady, which was a little wheyish, coagulated before it gave out its air; but the coagu- lum was not one half of its quantity. In another case of ascites, the water coagulated wholly, al- though not to a firm coagulum. Water drawn from the abdomen of a gentleman, which was pretty clear, when held over a lamp to coagulate, became at first wheyish. The liquor amnii has but very little coagulable matter in it. In coagulating all the above kinds of serum by heat, and tak- ing the incoagulable parts, and putting extract of Goulard to them, they coagulated immediately. Whether this fluid is of the same specific gravity with the other, I do not know ; for though when part of it is coagulated by the extract of lead it is the heaviest; yet as it is united with the lead, it may acquire its additional weight from this union. The use of the serum is probably to keep suspended and un- dissolved the red globules; for we find it in largest quantity when these globules are most abundant. It is also intended to suspend and dissolve any foreign substances in the blood whether they are of use to the body, or otherwise, acting- upon them as a common solvent. Thus wc sec in a jaundiced person, the serum is yellower than common. When a person has taken rhubarb, the same thing happens. It is probably the solvent of all our secretions I conceive it to be unnecessary to say how much water enters mto the composition of the blood. I„ order to constitute a per- fect body or compound, it is necessary that all its parts should