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USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

BLO

BLOIS, an important city of France on the river Loire, in the department of Loir et Cher. It is 96 miles from Paris in a straight line, S.W. by S., or 105 miles by the road through Etampes and Orléans. It is in 47° 35′ N. lat., 1° 20' E. long.

BLO

ice after the hard winter of 1709, unites it with the suburb of Vienne on the opposite side of the river. The upper part of the town, which is the most antient, has steep and narrow streets: more modern edifices occupy the lower part, and accord well with the fine quay that lines the bank of the Loire. According to local tradition, the most antient building, if indeed it yet remains *, is the prison. The bridge over the Loire is of stone and has eleven arches. The curve formed by the road-way is considerable, and the centre is consequently much raised above the bed of the river in the middle of the bridge rises a pyramid of about 60 feet high (exaggerated in some geographical works to 100), the effect of which is described as at once striking and agreeable. The castle was originally built by the Counts of Blois, and some part of the structure erected by them (viz., a large tower) still remains. The eastern front, under which is the gateway of the court, was built by Louis XII., whose statue, representing him on horseback, which once adorned this part of the building, has been thrown down. The northern front of the building was erected in the reign of Francis I., and another part towards the west by the celebrated architect Mansard at the order of Gaston, duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIII., to whom (as already noticed) the county of Blois was given as an appanage. When M. Millin visited Blois (in the early part of the present century) the castle was occupied as a barrack; to what use it is devoted at present we are unable to say. The hall of the States' was, at the time of M. Millin's visit, used as a place for exercising recruits in bad weather. A tower in this castle is called 'the tower of Château Renault or Regnard, because from it that place, which is distant eighteen miles, can be seen. The garden attached to the castle was planted by Henry IV., and improved while in the possession of Gaston of Orléans. Morison, an Englishman (who having followed the disastrous fortunes of Charles I., found an asylum in France), published a catalogue of the plants of this garden, which had acquired considerable celebrity.

Blois is a town of considerable antiquity. An aqueduct cut in the rock, which brings water from a spring at the distance of half a mile to a reservoir close to the walls of the town, is thought to be a Roman work; but no Roman geographer has mentioned any place that can be identified with Blois. Gregory, bishop of Tours, a writer of the sixth century (in his History of France), is the first who makes any clear and distinct mention of this town: he calls it Blesa. Under Charles le Chauve, or the Bald (grandson of Charlemagne), who reigned from 840 to 877, it was a place of some consequence; and under the princes of the second, or Carlovingian, race, money was coined here. Under these princes Blois with its surrounding territory was erected into a county, and the counts of Blois seem to have acquired considerable power, but their history and succession are confused and uncertain. Stephen, who usurped the throne of England upon the death of Henry I. in 1135, and his brother Henry, bishop of Winchester, were sons of one of the counts of Blois, by Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror; and the house of Blois was more than once united by marriage with the royal family of France. At length the county of Blois, having been sold to Louis, duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI., came by inheritance to his grandson, Louis; and upon the accession of this prince in 1498 to the throne of France, under the title of Louis XII., his domains, including this county, became attached to the crown. (Expilly, Dictionnaire des Gaules, &c.; Millin, Voyage dans les Départements du Midi de la France.) The county of Blois was subsequently made part of the appanage of Gaston, duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIII., and of Philip, only brother of Louis XIV., from whom it was inherited by the subsequent dukes of Orléans.

After the county was united to the crown, Blois was not unfrequently the residence of the court, and the scene of several important events. Here Louis XII. signed several treaties; and here were celebrated the feasts and tournaments which signalized the marriage of the Duke of Alençon with Margaret, sister of Francis I. Blois was also the scene of festivity in the reign of Henry II., son and successor of Francis; and here Henry IV. married Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II. But the most remarkable event of which this city was the scene, was the assassination in the castle of the Duke of Guise and his brother the Cardinal, in the year 1588, during the reign, and by the order, of the king, Henry III. [See GUISE.]

The city stands on the north or right bank of the Loire about midway between Orléans and Tours. It is built on the slope of a hill, the summit of which is crowned by the castle a bridge, erected in 1724, in the place of a more antient structure, the date of whose foundation was unknown, and which had been carried away by the breaking up of the

Of the other public buildings at Blois, the bishop's palace, which appears to have served for a time as the hotel or office of the prefecture, is one of the handsomest: from its terraced gardens there is one of the most agreeable prospects in France. The present office of the prefecture, built in a large place, or open space; the Hôtel de Ville, or town house, containing the valuable public library; the nunnery of the Carmelites, now used as a dépôt des étalons; and the Palais de Justice, or court-house, a building erected at various periods, are among the objects best worthy of notice. The public fountains contribute to the cleanliness of the place and the health of the inhabitants. These fountains are supplied by means of leaden channels or conduits from a reservoir to which the water is brought by the Roman aqueduct already noticed. The public walk,

We speak doubtfully on this head, for our latest authority for the exist
Citoyens J. A, La Vallée, &c., 13 tomes, Paris, 1793–1802.
ence of the prison is the Voyage dans les Departemens de la France, par les

VOL V-B

which is very beautiful, stretches along the river. (Malte- | the name of Prince Joseph de Chimay, who, with rare perBrun.) severance, and at great sacrifices, has so completely devoted himself to the noble labour of improving education, at an age when so many men have scarcely finished their own. The manufactures of this town consist of serges and other light woollens, leather (which branch of industry has rather declined), cutlery and hardware, glass, gloves, and liquorice. Beside these articles, there are others in which trade is carried on, as timber, drugs, wine, brandy, and vinegar.

Before the Revolution Blois possessed many religious houses; there were two abbeys, one of Benedictines (called the Abbey of St. Laumer), very antient, and celebrated for its school as early as the twelfth century; and one of the order of St. Augustin, called the Abbey of Bourg Moyen; convents for Cordeliers, Capuchins, and Minimes; and nunneries for Carmelites, Nuns of the Visitation, and those called Véroniques. There was a Jesuits' college previous to 1764, when that order of ecclesiastics was expelled from France. There was also an hospital for the sick (Hôtel-Dieu), attended by the nuns called Hospitalières, an hospital for the poor (or poor-house), and a seminary for the education of the priesthood. The churches at Blois were very much injured by the Protestants in the religious wars of the sixteenth century. The buildings of the Abbey of St. Laumer are now used as an hospital, and those of the Abbey of Bourg Moyen for the college or high school. The church of the Abbey of St. Laumer, now called St. Nicholas, is a remarkable monument of the architecture of a period when the Gallo-Roman style was passing away.

The gates of Blois have an image of the Virgin placed over them all, in commemoration of the deliverance of the townsmen from a dreadful pestilence which ravaged the place in 1631, and from which they were, as they deemed it, miraculously delivered in consequence of a vow which they made to the Virgin. (Expilly, Dictionnaire des Gaules, &c.)

Blois is the capital of the department. It has a tribunal de première instance, or subordinate court of justice, and a tribunal de commerce, or court for the settlement of mercantile disputes. The arrondissement of Blois comprehends 718 square miles, or 459,520 acres, and had, in 1832, a population of 114,307. It was subdivided into ten cantons and 140 communes.

Blois was made the seat of a bishopric in the year 1697, and was, with the exception of the bishoprics of Dijon and St. Claude, the latest of those established up to the Revolution. Under the reduced hierarchy of the present day it maintains its episcopal rank. The diocese comprehends the department of Loir et Cher; the bishop is a suffragan of the Archbishop of Paris. The celebrated M. Grégoire was bishop of Blois, or rather of the department of Loir et Cher, under the constitution of Civilé du Clergé, 1791; but as the church has always protested against that act, he is not counted in the succession of bishops.

Among the more eminent natives of Blois may be mentioned the good king Louis XII., under whom, as already noticed, the county of Blois was united to the crown; Father Jean Morin (Morinus), a learned orientalist and biblical scholar; and the Marquis de Favras, who was executed at Paris in the year 1790 upon a charge (whether true or false) of having formed the project of a counter-revo

On the side of the Loire opposite to Blois is the populous suburb of Vienne. As it is not mentioned separately in the returns of the population for 1832, we presume its population was included in that of Blois, which at that time amounted to 11,002 for the town and 13,138 for the whole commune. The people of this town have the reputation of speaking French with great purity, free from any provincialism; but the justness of the eulogy has been dis-lution. puted by some, who consider it to have been a mere complimentary inference from the frequent residence of the court here. There are at Blois a Collège or high school, which however is not of any great importance or repute, two hospitals, a cabinet of natural history, an agricultural society, a public library (already noticed), and a theatre. (M. Robert, Dictionnaire Géographique; Reichard, Descriptive Roud Book of France.) Near Blois are the schools of Menars, established by the Prince of Chimay, of which an account is given in No. XIII. of the Journal of Education, and of which we subjoin the following particulars transmitted to us (1835) from Blois.

The county of Blois (commonly called in maps Le Blaisois, but written by some Le Blésois) is bounded on the north by Le Dunois and L'Orléanais, properly so called, on the east and south by Berri, from which it is separated in one part by the Cher, and on the west by Touraine and Le Vendômois. It is divided into two parts by the Loire; the part to the south of that river comprehends part of the district of Sologne, one of the most barren tracts in France. The Loire is the only river of any importance which flows through it; the Beuvron and the Cosson, which fall into that river on the south side, are of minor importance, as also the Cisse, which falls into the Loire on the north bank. The Sauldre, a tributary of the Cher, waters the southern part. The chief towns in the Blésois, beside Blois, already described, were Romorantin, St. Dié, and Mer. Romorantin had, in 1832, 6537 inhabitants, or 6985 for the whole commune; and Mer, 1717 for the town, or 3733 for the whole commune; the others are probably of less importance. The Blésois was reputed one of the finest districts in France, abounding in game, poultry, and fish. It is now included in the department of Loir et Cher. The changes which this county passed through in the middle and later ages have been already noticed in speaking of the town of Blois. This country, in the time of the Romans, formed part of the territory of the Carnutes. (Malte-Brun; Expilly; Millin; Communication from Blois.)

Menars is a village five miles N.E. from Blois on the bank of the Loire, containing in the midst of a large park a very fine château, which was for some time the residence of Madame de Pompadour. A new and more powerful interest now attaches to this beautiful residence: Prince Joseph de Chimay, the owner of the Château de Menars, has formed, under the title of the 'Prytaneum,' extensive establishments for instruction, rational in its character, and designed for special purposes, instruction which corresponds to the varied wants of the different classes of which society is composed. Thus the first division of the Prytaneum, called the Institute of Commerce and the Belles Lettres,' embraces on the one hand a complete course of scientific and literary instruction, and on the other a complete commercial education. The second division is the School of Arts and Trades. There are seven workshops in this department; those of the wheelwright, joiner and cabinet-of maker, blacksmith, polisher and finisher of hardwares, turner in wood, saddler, and cutler. Theoretical and practical instruction are combined in the School of Arts and Trades. Lastly, the third division, called the School of Pioneers' (Ecole des Pionniers), a term employed in an enlarged sense, comprehends the trades of tailor, shoemaker, bricklayer (maçon), sawyer, gardener, &c. Different localities are assigned to each division of the Pry

taneum.

The success of the Prytaneum, which was founded only three years ago, has settled the question of education for special purposes which has so long occupied attention, and which some men of liberal minds have at different times sought to bring to the test of experience, but which has never yet been solved as it now is by the Prytaneum de Menars. This work of civilization and of moral improvement has inscribed in the list of benefactors to their country

BLOMEFIELD, FRANCIS, A.M., F.S.A., rector of Fresfield in Norfolk, and author of a very excellent history that county, was born at Fresfield on July 23rd, 1705. He was first educated at Diss, and then at Thetford, from whence he was sent to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1724. He took his degree of B.A. in 1727, and in the same year was ordained deacon of the church of St. Giles's in the Fields, London; and in the following year was made a licensed preacher by Dr. Tanner, then chancellor of Norwich. In 1729 he was instituted rector of Hargham in Norfolk, on the presentation of Thomas Hare, Esq.; and in September of the same year he was instituted rector of Fresfield, on the presentation of his own father, Henry Blomefield, Gent. He continued to hold both rectories till 1730, when he relinquished Hargham. The above particulars are derived from the genealogical table which he has given of his family in the History. We have found it difficult to get any further information concerning him, as the continuator of his work and the editor of the new edition do not furnish any additional facts. The

publishers of the last edition, in eleven vols. 8vo., com-
menced in 1805, exerted themselves to procure a likeness of
Blomefield, and having ascertained that there was none in
existence, had recourse to the rather curious expedient of
furnishing a portrait intended for another person, but which
was considered a striking likeness of the historian of
Norfolk.

is a solid substance. It is the most complex substance of the animal body. It is composed of several distinct constituents, each of which is endowed with specific properties, and the combination of the whole is so peculiar that there is nothing perfectly analogous to it.

On first flowing from its vessel the blood is a thick, viscid, and tenacious fluid. In all the more highly-organized animals it is of a red colour; but redness is not an essential property of it. In several tribes of animals which possess true and proper blood, this fluid is not of a red colour, and there is no animal whose blood is red in all the parts of the body. In the transparent cornea of the human eye there is abundance of blood; but the blood contained in the minute vessels of this delicate membrane is not red. The blood of the insect is colourless and transparent; that of the reptile is of a yellowish colour; in the main part of the body of the fish, that is, in the whole of its muscular system, the blood is without colour; hence the whiteness of the general substance of the body of the fish: but in the more important organs, and especially in those which constitute the circle of nutrition, called the organic organs, the blood is of a red colour, as in the heart, the branchia or gills, and so on. In the bird the blood is of a deep-red; but it is the deepest of all in the quadruped. In some species of quadrupeds it is deeper than in others; in the hare, for example, it is much deeper than in the rabbit. It is deeper in some varieties of the same species than in others, and more especially in different varieties of the human family. Nay, it is deeper in some individuals of the same race than in others, and even in the same individual it is different at different periods, according to age, to the states of health and of disease, and to different species of disease.

Blomefield's death must have taken place in or subse-
quently to 1751, as his last work, printed in his own house
at Norwich, is dated in that year. Mr. Gough intimates
that he died in bad circumstances. His great work, which
in its completed form constitutes one of the best county his-
tories we possess, was published under the modest title of
'An Essay towards the Topographical History of the County
of Norfolk. It was printed in his own house at Fresfield,
and the publication began in numbers in 1739. It was left
unfinished at his death, when he had carried it to nearly the
end of the third (folio) volume, and the completion was
ultimately undertaken by the Rev. C. Parkin, rector of
Oxburgh, who had rendered some assistance to Blomefield
in the previous portion, and had himself formed consider-
able collections. This gentleman finished the third volume,
and added two more, which are considered inferior to those
by Blomefield. However, no part of Mr. Parkin's conti-
nuation was published until after his death, when it was
issued by the bookseller who had purchased his library,
which included that of Blomefield. The second volume was
published in 1743, the third, completed by Parkin, not till
1769, and the fifth and final volume appeared in 1775.
Blomefield was greatly assisted in his work by the collec-
tions which had been formed by Peter Le Neve, norroy
king-at-arms, who spent above forty years in amassing at
great expense and trouble the greatest collection of facts for
the history of Norfolk that was ever formed for any county
in the kingdom. He was also greatly aided by Bishop
Tanner, who, having been chancellor of the diocese, was ac-
quainted with a vast number of records relative to the county.
Parkin also had the benefit of Le Neve's collections, as
well as of those which had been formed by Blomefield him-
self. Blomefield's own last-printed work was the Col-
lectanea Cantabrigiensia,' a collection relating to Cambridge
University, town, and county. Although printed so late,
the materials seem to have been collected before he began
the History of Norfolk,' that is, between the years 1724
and 1734, including the period of his residence at the uni-
versity.

(History of Norfolk, folio and 8vo. editions; Gough's
British Topography.)

BLONDEL, or BLONDIAUX, a French minstrel of
the twelfth century, and the friend of Richard I. of Eng.
land, whom he accompanied to Palestine. He is also called
Blondel de Nesles, from the name of his native town; but
Fauchet (Origine de la Langue et Poesie Françoise,
Paris, 1581), in his series of French poets anterior to 1300,
expresses doubts whether the Blondel de Nesles was iden-
tical with Richard's minstrel. Accordingly, he bestows a
separate article on each, giving under the head of Blondel
de Nesles extracts from some of his songs, written in the
Norman French, or ‘Langue d'oui;' while under the head
of Blondel, Richard's favourite, he relates the story of his
wandering through Germany in 1193 in search of his
master, who, on his return from Palestine, had been made
a prisoner by Leopold duke of Austria, and confined in
some unknown fortress. On arriving under the walls of
the castle of Löwenstein, Blondel, who, from some intelli-
gence he had obtained, suspected that to be Richard's
prison, began singing an air which they had composed
together, when to his joy he heard Richard's voice re-
sponding and concluding the song. The discovery led to
Richard's release. This tale, which Fauchet gives on the
authority of some old French chronicle, has furnished the
subject of a well-known opera by Gretry. The truth of the
story however is doubted. (See Berington's History of
Richard I., and the article Blondel, in the Biographie
Universelle.) This last styles Richard's Blondel 'Blondel
de Nesles,' considering them as one person, and it states that
there are twenty-nine of his songs in MS. in the National
or Royal Library, and in the library of the Arsenal at

Paris.

BLOOD, the animal fluid contained in the tubes called from their office blood-vessels. As long as it is retained in its proper vessel, and as long as the vessel remains alive, the blood is always found in a fluid state, but essentially it

In man and all the higher animals the body contains two kinds of blood, each of which is distinguished by a striking difference of colour. Each kind of blood is contained in its own peculiar set of vessels: the one in the vessel called a vein, hence called venous blood; the other in the vessel called an artery, arterial blood. Venous blood is of a dark or Modena-red colour; arterial blood is of a bright scarlet colour. Venous differs from arterial blood in its most essential properties no less than in its colour: venous blood is incapable of nourishing the body and of stimulating the organs; arterial blood is the proper nutrient and stimulant of the system.

The specific gravity of human blood (water being 1000) may be stated to be about 1050, from which standard it is capable of increasing to 1120, and of sinking to 1026, this being the extreme range of variation hitherto observed. Venous is heavier than arterial blood, the former being commonly estimated at 1052, and the latter at 1049: the difference in weight depends, as will be seen immediately, on the excess in venous blood of carbonaceous matter. The higher the organization of the blood the greater is its specific gravity: hence the specific gravity of the blood of the higher is greater than that of the lower animals, and the change produced in the human blood by disease is generally attended with a diminution of its weight. In one instance on record the specific gravity is stated to have been as low as 1022.

There is a remarkable difference in different classes of animals in the temperature of the blood. In some it is only a degree or two above that of the surrounding medium. Creatures with blood of this low temperature are called coldblooded, in contradistinction to warm-blooded animals, whose temperature is maintained, under whatever variety of circumstances they may be placed, considerably above that of the surrounding air. The temperature of the blood of the bird is higher than that of any other creature. In the duck it is as high as 107°. In many quadrupeds it is considerably higher than in man: as in the sheep, in which it ranges from 102° to 103°. In man it is 98°. ́Arterial is warmer by one degree than venous blood.

Disease is capable of effecting a considerable change in the temperature of the blood. In almost every case of fever the temperature of the blood differs from the natural standard. In the cold fit of intermittent fever (ague) it sometimes sinks as low as 94°; in some types of continued fever it rises as high as 102°. In inflammation of moderate severity it exceeds the natural standard by 4°; in intense inflammation it is capable of rising above it as high as 7o.

The chemical properties of the blood are highly curious. When blood is taken from its blood-vessel, and allowed to remain at rest, it soon separates spontaneously into two dis

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tinct parts, into a solid mass and into a fluid matter, in which | the solid mass swims. The solid portion of the blood is termed the clot, or the crassamentum; the fluid portion is called the serum; and the process by which the separation takes place is denominated coagulation.

The change in the constitution of the blood by which this separation into a solid and a fluid portion is effected, probably commences the very instant the blood leaves the blood-vessel. In the space of three minutes and a half it is sufficiently advanced to be manifest to the eye; in seven minutes the fluid is separated from the solid portion; while the change progressively advances until, in the space of from twelve to twenty minutes, the separation may be said to be complete.

The nature of this curious process is imperfectly understood. It is a process sui generis, there being no other with which we are acquainted perfectly analogous to it. It is really, as will be shown immediately, a process of death; it is the mode in which the blood dies.

A watery vapour, called the halitus, begins to arise from the blood the moment coagulation commences, and continues to issue from it until the termination of the process. The halitus consists of water containing some animal matter in solution. It possesses a very peculiar odour, and it is this which gives to the slaughter-house its characteristic taint.

The clot or crassamentum, the solid part of the blood, further separates into two portions, a substance of a yellowish white colour forming the top of the clot, and a red mass always found at the bottom of the clot. When the yellowish substance forming the top of the clot is completely separated from the red mass, it is found to be a solid of considerable consistence, soft, firm, elastic, and tenacious, or gluey. Its distinctive character is derived from the disposition manifested by its component particles to arrange themselves into minute threads or fibres; these threads or fibres are often so disposed as to form a complete net-work. In its general aspect, as well as in its chemical relations, this substance bears a striking resemblance to pure muscular fibre; that is, to muscular fibre deprived of its enveloping membrane and of its colouring matter.

Several names have been given to this substance, gluten, coagulable lymph, fibre of the blood, and fibrin; the latter is the name commonly appropriated to it. Of all the constituents of the blood fibrin is by far the most important. Whatever other constituent may be absent, this, in all animals which possess blood, is invariably present. The main part of all the solid structures of the body is composed of it: it forms the basis of muscle, and in the lower animals, in which distinct muscular fibres cannot be traced, it probably performs the function of muscle.

The second constituent of the clot, the red matter, being heavier than the fibrin, gradually subsides to the lower surface, where, as has just been stated, it is always found forming the bottom of the clot. The proportion of this red matter to the fibrin differs exceedingly in different classes of animals, and even in the same animal at different times, the difference depending on circumstances mainly connected with the general health and vigour of the system. The greater the energy and activity of the animal, the larger is the proportion of this red matter, and it is also generally large in proportion to the elevation of the animal tempe

rature.

Considerable diversity of opinion prevails respecting the intimate nature of this constituent of the blood. What is certain is, that it is composed of innumerable minute particles which vary in size in different animals. It is universally admitted that these particles, minute as they are, are highly organized; but physiologists are not agreed respecting their structure. By some observers they are supposed to be formed of solid colourless nuclei enclosed in an external envelope of a red colour, to which the colour of the blood is owing. By others they are described as consisting of circular, flattened, and transparent cakes, which when seen singly appear to be nearly or quite colourless, but which assume a reddish tinge when aggregated in considerable masses. According to these physiologists, the edge of these cakes is rounded, and this being their thickest part, there is consequently a slight depression in the middle, on both surfaces. The familiar object which these bodies are conceived most nearly to resemble is a penny-piece, with its thickened margin and slightly concave surface. According to this account, the red particles are wholly des

titute of an external envelope. Instead of consisting of a solid nucleus, inclosed in a red vesicle, the whole body is solid. The former opinion was that of the older physiologists, arrived at by an examination of the particles of the blood with the microscope, when this instrument was much less perfect than it is at present, and when the use of it was much less accurately understood. Mr. Lister, who has succeeded in effecting a considerable improvement in the microscope, and who, together with his friend Dr. Hodgkin, has examined the red particles of the blood with great care, describes them as flattened solid bodies without any membranous envelope.

All observers are agreed that the size of these particles, as long as they retain unimpaired the form they possess on escaping from the blood-vessel, is perfectly uniform; but their real magnitude is variously estimated: the size of the red particle of the human blood is, according to

The red particles of the blood have a circular form in all the animals constituting the class mammalia, but in the three other classes of vertebrated animals, the fish, the reptile, and the bird, their figure is elliptical. The elliptical particles are larger than the circular, but proportionally thinner. They are larger in fishes than in any other animals, and the largest of all in the skate. They are far more numerous in the bird than in the reptile and fish, but very much smaller.

In what manner, and even in what part of the system the red particles are formed, we are wholly ignorant. The perfect uniformity of their size and form in the several species of animals, and the undeviating precision with which they assume an elongated figure in oviparous, and a circular figure in viviparous animals, would indicate that the power which forms them, whatever it be, is simple in its nature and very general in its operation.

The red particles of the blood are much greater in magnitude than the colourless particles of the fibrin; hence the fibrinous particles readily enter blood-vessels too minute to admit of the red particles. Both sets of particles, diffused through the body of a living animal in a state of extreme subdivision, appear also to be in a state of extreme selfrepulsion. By this self-repulsion the union of the particles is prevented and the blood is maintained in a fluid state. In blood withdrawn from the body of a living animal, the property of self-repulsion, more especially among the fibrinous particles, ceases, and they readily cohere, this cohesion constituting the state of coagulation.

The fluid part of the blood called the serum is a transparent fluid, of a light straw-colour tinged with green. The proportion of it to the solid part of the blood, or clot, differs exceedingly in different species of animals and in the same animal at different times, according to different states of the system. There is a strict relation between its relative proportion and the strength and ferocity, or weakness and gentleness of the animal. It is small in proportion to the power and fierceness of the animal, and large in proportion to its weakness and timidity: thus it is small in the carnivorous animals, and large in the hare, sheep, and so on. Its quantity is often very much increased in many diseases, and more especially in fever of the typhoid type, in which malady the solid part of the blood is sometimes so much diminished, that coagulation is incapable of taking place, and the entire mass, instead of separating into a transparent fluid and a firm solid, remains a fluid gore.

Serum has an adhesive consistence and a saline taste. Its characteristic property is that of coagulating by heat and by the application of certain chemical agents. At the temperature of 160° it is converted into a white, opaque, solid substance, exactly resembling the white of egg when hardened by boiling, being in fact perfectly pure albumen. Serum contains a quantity of uncombined alkali, for it converts the vegetable colours to green, and it holds in solution various earthy and neutral salts. According to M. Le Canu, who has made the most recent chemical analysis of serum, 1000 parts contain, of