Volume 2

On the white, or opaque serum of the blood / [Andrew Buchanan].

  • Andrew Buchanan
Date:
1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the white, or opaque serum of the blood / [Andrew Buchanan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    From the Transactions of the Glasgow Philosophical Society. March, 1844. ON THE WHITE, OR OPAQUE SERUM OF THE BLOOD. BY ANDREW BUCHANAN, M.D., PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. It is well known to all who have been in the habit of examin¬ ing the characters of the blood, that the serum which separates from it, instead of being transparent and of a yellow colour as we usu¬ ally find it, is sometimes opaque and turbid, white as if milk had been diffused through it, or otherwise discoloured. Such serum is usually spoken of as white or milky serum. My present intention is to submit to the Society a few observations as to the causes in which this re¬ markable appearance of the serum of the blood originates. It has been affirmed, that the blood itself is sometimes of a milky colour as it issues from the veins, or exhibits white streaks diffused through its dark-red substance. That this latter appearance is some¬ times observable within the blood-vessels of live animals, more espe¬ cially in the vicinity of the heart, and that it is occasioned by the chyle mingling but not yet incorporated with the blood, we have the testi¬ mony of various physiologists, as of Pecquet, who by tracing the white fluid to its origin, was led to the discovery of the two great trunks by which the lymphatic vessels communicate with the blood-vessels. In human blood flowing from the veins, I have never seen either white streaks or diffuse whiteness. I have indeed heard of such appearances being observed, but I am satisfied that they must be of very rare occurrence from my having looked for them so often in vain in the circumstances in which, as is shown below, they were most likely to have presented themselves, w It appears to me, there¬ fore, probable, that the indefinite expressions “white” or “milky blood,” employed by Haller, and by many other writers before and since, must refer chiefly to the white state of the serum. This is certainly the meaning of some of the authors quoted by Haller, as
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