Two ounces and six drachms of blood were taken from a healthy horse, and two drachms of pus were mixed with it. The mass coagulated in three minutes and three-quarters.
A healthy male ass, three years old, was procured, and, with the assistance of Mr. Mayer, was made the subject of the following experiment, on the 23rd of September, 1848. Three drachms of pus were collected from an issue in the chest of a horse, which laboured under inflammation of the lungs. The pus thus obtained was quite pure and sweet, and having been warmed, was injected, by means of a syringe, into the left brachial vein of the ass. The animal lay quiet, till nearly the whole of the pus was injected; it then struggled, and a small quantity of the pus may have been lost. When the operation was completed, the sides of the vein were brought together with a pin, and the animal was allowed to get up. The vein above the opening could now be felt as a hard, unyielding cord, as high as it could be traced with the hand; but upon gentle pressure being made, so as to propel the blood in the course of the circulation, the hardness completely disappeared. The vein which, immediately after the operation, was hard and prominent, no longer presented anything remarkable to the touch. The animal now moved from side to side, as if inclined to lie down.
Two hours and a half after the operation, the pulse, which naturally was 36, had risen to 60; and the respiration from 12 per minute had increased to 26.
September 24th. Pulse 52; respiration 20; mouth hot; ears cold. In the evening the pulse became 48 and the respiration 16; he coughed occasionally.
25th. Pulse 48; respiration 12; some dullness of countenance, but he is lively and occasionally playful. The left fore-leg is swollen; the ears are very cold. In the afternoon he was killed, and the blood was allowed to flow from the body.
Post-mortem appearances. The wound in the left leg opened directly into the brachial vein, which was filled with lymph and a thin pus for a very short distance, both above and below the external opening; immediately above this, the vein was healthy, nor was there any appearance of disease in any of the other veins of the limb, nor in the veins leading to the heart. The glands in the axilla were swollen. The lungs were found studded irregularly in different parts, with circumscribed spots of livid congestion: these existed both upon the surface and in the substance of the lungs; they were generally about the size of a filbert, but in some places they occupied a single lobule, and were accurately circumscribed by its outline.
On the 23rd of November, 1848, about an ounce of perfectly pure pus (previously warmed) was injected into the right jugular vein of an aged ass; the vein immediately became "corded", and the blood appeared to have coagulated in the vessel. The operation did not much excite the breathing; but the pulse, which naturally was 35 in the minute, rose to 60, and subsequently fell to 55.