A treatise on the blood, inflammation, and gun-shot wounds / by John Hunter ; with notes by James F. Palmer.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the blood, inflammation, and gun-shot wounds / by John Hunter ; with notes by James F. Palmer. 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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    the serum or urine, it might be imagined to arise from the neutral salts which they contain ; but I should believe that neither ot these fluids has a quantity sufficient for that purpose. The vitriolic acid does not dissolve the red globules when diluted so low as to have less pungency of taste than common vinegar. The red globules are soluble in common vinegar, but take a longer time to dissolve than in water; and they also dissolve much sooner when the vinegar is diluted with water. In muriatic acid, diluted so as to be more pungent to the tongue, and three times stronger than the vinegar, the red globules are not dissolved, but lose their red colour: by adding more water to the red globules, they dissolve ; lemon juice dissolves the red globules: all this, however, throws but little light on this part of the blood. When the globules are put into water they dissolve, which de- stroys their globular form ; it is therefore the serum, and probably the coagulating lymph also, when circulating, which confines them to this form; but when the serum is diluted with water they dis- solve in it; and this appears to take place at once, as quick as water unites with water.* I could not observe that it was like the solution of a solid body, as a salt, for instance : a drop of blood requires about two drops of water added to it to dissolve its glo- bules : if urine also be diluted with water, the globules dissolve in it. However, after standing some days the globules dissolve both in serum and urine ; but I think later in the last. When the glo- bules are not dissolved in any fluid the whole looks muddy, not transparent; but when dissolved in water the whole is a fine clear red. What are the properties of the serum, and those other sub- stances that preserve the red part of the blood in a regular form, I do not know.f The red globules, when dried in the serum, and moistened in the same, do not again resume their regular form; nor do ihey dissolve in it, as they do in water, but form rather a sort of flakes. As the serum and solutions of many kind of salts do not dissolve the red globules, I conceived that it might be possible for them to resume their globular figure (after having been dissolved in water), by adding such a quantity of serum as to make the proportion of water * [According to Dr. Young, the outer coatonly, or colouring matter, is dissolved by water, in consequence cf which the central (fibrinous) nucleus hecomes spherical, and specifically lighter than water. SirEverard Home states that, the globule loses ^d in diameter, and |ds in substance, whenever it is deprived of its colouring matter by solution.] f [Many circumstances induce the belief, that the cohesion of the colouring matter of the globules to their central fibrinous nuclei is a manifestation of vitality! In adynamic fevers, in cases of death from poisoning, and under many other cir- cumstances, this cohesion is destroyed, in consequence of which the colouring matter of the blood transudes through the coats of the veins, or else exudes into the serous cavities. Under such circumstances also, the blood, when abstracted from the body, instead of coagulating, is apt to let fall a pulverulent deposit, and to pass rapidly into a state of putrefaction. I have already observed that the catamenial fluid is devoid of red globules, and consists merely of a solution of colouring matter.]