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disappearing during the middle of the day," and descending visibly again in the evening. insige moersy The variations of temperature in the atmosphere, independent of those which proceed from the direct influence of the sun, arise from the conversion of water into vapour, which produces cold; and the condensation of vapour into water, which produces heat. Hence it commonly follows, that in proportion as the barometer rises, the thermometer sinks, and vice versa, throughout the year; the direct influence of the sun in clear weather being abstractedt

Thunder frequently follows a considerable duration of dry hot weather, both these circumstances being favourable to the' collection and insulation of electric matter. 5 di

The extraordinary elevation of the barometer which sometimes happens, is said to arise from two currents of air, from opposite directions, meeting and accumulating over a particular spot and the extraordinary depression of the barometer, from the circumstance of two currents of air setting out from any particular spot in either case a commotion of the air is necessarily produced, whilst the equilibrium is restoring.hi 984 Del Mourousde el to somonnɔJD IN

That the atmosphere, as well as the sea, is affected periodieally in a small degree by the attraction of the moon, is well ascertained; but it does not appear that the weather is in the least influenced by any mechanical effect of the moon.

I was led to remark a difference of the weather during the increase and during the one of the moon, by observing that eclipses of the moon were much seldomer obscured by a cloudy atmosphere than eclipses of the sun; and subsequent observations of a general, nature have somewhat confirmed me in the same opinion, bus vody Is onusrunqqa audazed.

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For the Medical and Physical Journals

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bodila,astu Observations on White Serum non of

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WE have been favoured, by JOSHUA BROOKS, ESQ. (Theatre of Anatomy, Blenheim Street), with a portion of SERUM of Human Blood, which in appearance exactly resembles milk. gd: Ju dide jogude nidhi a

* At Lima, in Peru, it never rains; the moisture in the day time being restored again at night in the state of mist.tum sili

In summer, during fair weather, the nights, or rather the mornings

before sun-rise, are cold, approaching even to frost.

The

The blood, of which this serum made a part, was taken from a person suffering under splenitis, which was believed to arise from repeated attacks of intermittent fever. When drawn from the arm, it separated almost immediately into a white opake serum of the colour and consistence of milk, and a crassamentum (buffy and cupped) which floated in it. The patient was blooded five times. The first, second, and third bleedings exhibited the milky serum; the fourth and fifth had the serum of a natural colour and consistence, with a less sizy crassamentum.

The blood, from which this milky serum, separated, was taken from the arm on the 24th of November ult.--and now, on the 25th of January, 1811, this serum has not undergone any change in its appearance and qualities, remains perfectly free from putridity, and looks like milk fresh from the

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The Gentleman, Mr. Cullen, Surgeon of Sheerness, from whose patient the blood was taken, and who transmitted the serum to Mr. Brooks, describes the bason of blood as pre cisely resembling a bason of milk, with the crassamentum floating in ithivaretary n

The rare occurrence of this phenomenon, and the little that is at present known either concerning its cause or properties, or its connection with health and disease, induce us to lay before our readers the observations of that ingenious anatoSamist, Mr. HEWSON, on the subject. Possibly this will be more acceptable, as we extract from a work become extremely scarce, and of a high price. EDITOR.

"ALTHOUGH the serum of human blood be naturally transparent, and a little yellowish, yet it is frequently found to have the appearance of whey, and sometimes to have white streaks swimming on its surface like a cream, and now and then to be as white as milk, whilst the coagulum is as red as usual. In all these three cases of whiteness, I have examined it in a microscope with a pretty large magnifier, and have found it to contain a number of very small globules, although naturally, when transparent, no globules can be observed in it, notwithstanding what has been affirmed by some authors. These globules differ from the red particles (improperly called globules) in their size, which is much smaller; and likewise in their shape, which is spherical, whilst the red particles are flat. They agree more with the globules of milk. I have compared them with those of woman's milk, and have found, that in the milk the globules are of different sizes, some being three or four times as large as others, and the smallest little

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more than just visible, when viewed with a lens of of an inch focus, whilst those of the white serum are more regular, and are all of them about the size of the smallest globules of milk. Of white serum I have met with the following instances in books. In Tulpius, one instance, * in Morgagni, two,t in the Philosophical Transactions, some instances, in Schenckius's Observations, two cases are related from other authors. I have likewise heard of the same appearance having been observed by the learned Sir John Pringle, Dr. Pitcairn, Dr. Hunter, Dr. Watson, Dr. Bromfield, Dr. Garthshore, and Dr. Fothergill of Northampton. And other instances have lately occurred to persons of my acquaintance who have favoured me with a short account of them.

"Mr. French, apothecary in St. Alban-street, having informed me, that he had some blood by him, taken from a woman the day before, whose serum was as white as milk; he favoured me with a small quantity of it for examination, and with it the following particulars of the case. ، Mary Rider, about twenty-five years of age, of a fresh complexion, and lusty, has not had her menses for these seven months. She discharges blood sometimes by vomiting, and sometimes by stools complains of a pain in her left side, and in her stomach: she has an inclination to eat, but when she tries, she soon after loathes her food. She complains of great lassitude and sleepiness; her pulse is ninety-five in a minute. She has been bled twelve times within these six months, and every time the serum was as white as milk.”

"Mr. Robertson, apothecary in Earl Street, acquainted me, that Mr. Herbert, a publican, of about thirty-five years of age, and corpulent, had been subject to a bleeding at the nose, to the piles, and to such profuse sweats in the night, as to be frequently obliged to change his shirt in the morning before he got out of bed, but that, for some time past, his sweats had ceased. That, on September the 23d, he was seized with a bleeding at his nose, which had been preceded by a pain in his head for two or three days. That his bleeding continued till he hact lost about two pounds of blood,' and then stopt; and that the serum of his blood was as white as milk. That at ten o'clock the same night, the hemorrage returned, and he lost, a considerable quantity; nevertheless, it was thought proper to take sixteen ounces of blood from

his arm, during which evacuation he fainted, but his bleeding at the nose stopt. That the serum of this last blood was likewise very white. That on the 25th, in the morning, be again complained of a pain in his head, and about ten o'clock his nose began to bleed again; but the serum now appeared no. whiter than whey. That he continued to lose blood during most part of the night, so that it was supposed he could not lose less than two or three pounds, the serum all this time. being a little whitish, but so little, that the bottom of the vessel in which it stood could now be seen through it. his bleeding returned repeatedly till the third of October, when it entirely stopt, the serum having become more transparent towards the last."

That

Mr. Eustace, apothecary in Jermyn-street, sent me a phial of white serum from one of his patients, by trade a butcher. This man,' he told me, was tall, of a strong make, athard drinker, subject to pake every morning, took little food, sweated a good deal, but did not waste in his flesh. He was bled for a slight asthma to which he was subject, and of which he had always been relieved by bleeding.

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In other respects he was in a good state of health, so as to

follow his business without much inconvenience

"Besides these cases, my friend Mr. Lambert, surgeon at Newcastle upon Tyne, told me, that he had a patient some years ago with a violent rheumatic pain in his hip, whom he was obliged to bleed thrice, and every time his serum was as white as milk, but the congulum of its natural colour. This gentleman, Mr. Lambert adds, was a free liver, of a full make, but rather muscular than corpulent, and remarkable for being a great walker

"When I first saw this unusual colour of the serum, I was inclined to adopt the opinion of those who have at tempted to explain it by the patient's being bled soon after a meal, or before the chyle was converted into blood. - But afterwards, on considering the cases above related, I found this could by no means be the cause, as none of these pa tients had taken a sufficient quantity of food to occasion this appearance; on the contrary, most of them had a bad appetite, and had taken remarkably little food, and were subject to vomitings. I therefore concluded it was owing to something else, and what confirmed me in this opinion was an observation I had repeatedly made in dissecting geese, whose serum had frequently seen white, whilst their chyle was transparent; although they had been killed only three or four hours after eating. And as the whiteness, in all the cases that I examined, was owing to a quantity of small globules like those of milk (which are known to be oily) I con(No. 144.)

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cluded

cluded that these in the human serum, when white, were oily likewise, and recollecting to have read somewhere of an experiment by which butter had been got from such human serum, I tried, by agitating some of it a little diluted, to se.. parate its oil, or to churn it, but without success. I then inspissated some of it to dryness, and compared it with the natural serum of human blood prepared in the same way, and found it less tenacious, and much more inflammable; and when thus dried, its oil oozed out so much as to make the paper in which it was kept greasy. Another portion of this white serum being kept some days, putrified, and when putrid, it jellied as milk does when become sour, but it dif fered from milk, in being extremely fœtid.

"Now, as the white globules appear from these experiments to be of an oily nature, and as it is improbable, from these patients having taken little food, and from the transparency of the chyle in birds, that this whiteness of the serum should be owing to unassimulated chyle, accumulated in the blood-vessels; we must therefore believe it to be owing to some other cause. And as we know there is a considerable quantity of oil laid up in the cellular substance of animals, which is occasionally re-absorbed, is it not most probable. that this curious appearance was, in the above-mentioned cases, owing to such a re-absorption? And as all these pa tients had symptoms of a plethora, and were relieved either by spontaneous hemorrhages, or by blood-letting, is it not probable, that, to whatever purpose the oil is applied in the body after it is re-absorbed from the cellular membrane, in these patients it had been re-absorbed faster than it was applied, and by that means was accumulated in their blood-vessels? This conjecture seems to be confirmed, from considering that in most of these cases the people were inclined to corpulency, and that two of them laboured under a stoppage of a natural evacuation.*

"Another conclusion which these observations lead us to is, that since the chyle of the birds which I dissected was not white, but transparent, at whatever time after eating it was examined, it follows, that the fat (in these animals at least) is

* Although it appears probable that the whiteness of the serum in the above-mentioned cases was not owing to the chyle, yet I would not conclude that the chyle does not in the human subject occasionally colour the serum. We frequently observe the serum of such people as are bled a few hours after a meal, a little turbid, like whey, which I believe may be owing to the chyle. But if the milk-like serum was occasioned by a full meal, it is likely we should oftener see it than we do.

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