about another, inclined at any angle to the former; and also a new, and comparatively concise, demonstration of the equations of the motion of rotation of a solid body, its centre of gravity being fixed, and the body being acted on by any forces.
The Society then adjourned over Whitsun-week to meet again on the 14 th June next.
June 14, 1838.
His Royal Highness the DUKE of SUSSEX, K.G., President, in the Chair.
A paper was read, entitled, "Researches on Suppuration;" by George Gulliver, Esq., Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards. Communicated by John Davy, M.D., F.R.S., Assistant Inspector of Army Hospitals.
The author, in consequence of some theoretical views of the suppurative process, was led to undertake an examination of the blood in the different forms of fever accompanying inflammation and suppuration; and the result has been the detection of globules of pus in that fluid in almost every instance where there had existed, during life, either suppuration, or great tumefaction of the external parts without the presence of pus. The means by which he detected pus in the blood were partly chemical, and partly by the aid of the microscope. Availing himself of the solvent power which water exerts on the globules of the blood, while it has no action on those of pus, he had merely to dilute the suspected blood sufiiciently with water, by which means the red globules were made to disappear, while those of pus remained at the bottom of the fluid, and were easily recognised by a good microscope. A number of cases are detailed, from which the general result, above stated, was deduced. He considers that his experiments tend to establish the conclusion that suppuration is a kind of proximate analysis of the blood. As the fibrin separated from this fluid produces swelling of the part affected, or is attracted to the contiguous tissue for the reparation of the injury, the globules of the blood, altered by stagnation, become useless, and are discharged as excrementitious matter from the system. Such is the constitution of healthy pus: but when mixed with broken down fibrin, it assumes the flaky and curdled appearance, with proneness to putrefaction, characterising unhealthy pus, and the presence of which in the blood is connected with fevers of the inflammatory or typhoid form.
A paper was also in part read, entitled, "Researches on the Tides," Ninth Series; by the Rev. W. Whewell, M.A., F.R.S., &c.
