Some considerations with respect to the blood, founded on one or two very simple experiments on that fluid / [B.G. Babington].

  • Babington, B. G. (Benjamin Guy), 1794-1866
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some considerations with respect to the blood, founded on one or two very simple experiments on that fluid / [B.G. Babington]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    length the Liquor Sanguinis separates, by a general coagulation and contraction, into two parts, and this phenomenon takes place uniformly through¬ out the liquor. That part of it through which the red particles had time to fall, furnishes a pure fibrine or buffed crust, while that portion into which the red particles had descended, furnishes the co¬ loured clot. This, in extreme cases, may be very loose at the bottom, from the great number of red particles collected there, each of which has sup¬ planted its bulk of fibrine, and consequently di¬ minished its firmness in that part. There is, how¬ ever, with this limitation, no more fibrine in one part of the blood than another * From the foregoing account of the cause of a buflPed surface on blood, it will be easily perceived why the form of the vessel in which it is received influences this phenomenon—a matter of common observation. The space left by the gravitation of the red particles, bears a proportion to the whole perpendicular depth of the blood, so that in shallow vessels scarcely any buff¬ ed coat may appear where the same blood in a deep vessel would have furnished such a coat of considerable thickness. It is a fact, however, w^hich I have not seen noticed, that the quan¬ tity of crassamentum is also dependent, within certain limits, on the form of the vessel employed. If this be shallow, the crassamentum will be abundant, if approaching in form the cube or sphere, it will be scanty. This difference is owing to the greater or less distance of the coagulating particles of fibrine from a common centre, which causes a more or less powerful adhesion and contraction of those particles. Perhaps few facts relating to the phenomena of venesection, are of more practical importance than this ; since blood is said to be thick or thin, rich or poor, in reference to the quantity of crassamen-