Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![The tunica vaginalis filling again so rapidly in this case was perhaps the reason why it did not adhere to the coagulum on the other side, so as to produce a union between the two parts. Quaere, For what purpose did this coagulum become vascular ? * for no visible purpose could be answered by it, as absorption, we may sup- pose, might have taken place as easily in a coagulum as in the cellular membrane. But perhaps absorption not going on here was the cause of the collection of water; and adhesive inflammation evidently took place here that it might be able to absorb itself. Thus, then, the materials of which the blood is composed are joined with the living principle; in consequence of which the blood, if properly disposed, is capable, when extravasated, of forming itself spontaneously into parts fit for motion, and for performing all the offices of any part of the living whole, successively receiving the stimulus of nature from the surrounding parts to form itself into a similar part, as bone, carti- lage, &c. In many diseases not inflammatory, namely, those called putrid, where the solids have a tendency to fall into those changes natural to animal matter deprived of its preserving principle, the blood has no disposi- tion to coagulate, nor the solids any power of raising inflammation, both having taken on the same disposition. In such a disease both the prin- ciple and power are diminished, so that life is hardly able to preserve the matter from falling into its natural changes, though it has still a disposition to keep the vital parts or body moving. Many kinds of death as well as putrid diseases produce this effect on the blood; an instance of which was met with in a gentleman, who being in perfect health, died instantaneously from passion, this having been so violent as to produce death in every part at once, and his blood did not coagulate. A healthy woman was taken in labour of her fourth child. As the child was coming into the world the woman died almost instantly. On * [The opinion that coagulated blood can become vascular, and so afford the com- mon basis of union by the first intention, was firmly entertained by Mr. Hunter; but the proofs which are here adduced in favour of such an opinion are by no means so conclusive as they should be to establish so important a doctrine. For, not to mention the length of time which elapsed, in the present cases, between the injuries received and the appearances observed, the situation and definite form of the coagula would rather favour the idea that they proceeded from effused lymph, which became more or less in- termixed with effused blood. Such an intermixture is generally observed in cases of wounds and operations, but I am not aware of any unequivocal example of pure coagula which have been observed to become vascular, although it is scarcely possible that this should have escaped observation if it were at all frequent. See Plates XVIII. and XIX. for the appearances alluded to in the text.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21996623_0001_0268.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
