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Untitled Article
ties ; one contained in the arteries of a bright scarlet colour , the other in the veins of a dark or Modena red .. The specific gravity of human blood , taking water as 1000 , is about 1050 . It is capable of rising to 1120 , and of sinking to 1022 . Disease almost always diminishes its weight , and the higher the organization of the animal the greater is the specific gravity of the blood . Venous is heavier than arterial blood .
The temperature of the blood varies considerably in different animals . In those called cold blooded it is only 1 ° or 2 above the jsurrounding medium . In the bird it is higher than in any other creature—it is 107 ° in the duck . In the quadruped it is higher than in man . In man it ia about 90 ° , varying , however , like its colour , in disease . In almost every fever the temperature of the blood is very much altered * In the cold fit of ague it sometimes sinks to 94 ° , and Dr . Smith stated that he had found it rise to 102 ° in continued fever .
No animal has the power of steadily maintaining its own temperature under intense degrees of heat and cold in a degree comparable to man . It is not known what degree of cold man may le able to bear , but it is certain that he can without injury bear it severe enough to freeze mercury ; and Drs . Fordyce and Blagden remained for several minutes with perfect ease in rooms heated to 264 ° , that is 52 ° above
the boiling point , and the temperature of their bodies did not rise more than 3 ° or 4 ° . The phenomena connected with the chemistry of the blood are highly curious . It has been stated that soon after its removal from its vessel the blood is changed into a firm solid , and a thin liquid . This process of solidification , which is called coagulation , is in fact a to
process of death ; it is completed in from 1 ^ 2 (? , and in venous blood in 7 ' , when the system is in a state of health ; When the coagulation is complete the blood is quite dead . During the process of coagulation an aqueous vapour is seen to rise from the blood . This vapour is called its halitus . It has a distinct and very peculiar odour , which may be observed in passing a 4 4
slaughter-house . There is another place / Dr . Smith added , in which it is perceptible . It strikes strongly and afflictingiy upon the sense in that great slaughter-house of human beings , a field of battle . Few who have been brought acquainted with it in that situation have ever forgotten it . Deep and intense is the horror with which they ever speak of the sensation it produced upon them /
The solid portion of the blood is called the crassamentum or clot . After a certain time it further separates into a solid yellowish white substance , and into a red mass , to which the colour of the blood is owing . The former of these is called fibrin , from its disposition to arrange itself into fibres . It is by far the most important part of the
blood . It constitutes the main part of all the solids of the body . It is stFikingly like pure muscular fibre , and in the lower animals in which no distinct muscle can be traced , it probably performs the office of muscle . The red matter which forms the second portion of the clot varies in relative quantity in different animals , and in the same animal at different times , increasing according to its health and vigour . This re 4 matter has excited more observation than any other part of the blood . It has lately been found , by means of the improved
Untitled Article
122 Dr . Southwood Smith on the Animal'Economy .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 122, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/54/
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