If in asphyxia the black blood suspend the action of the cerebral mass, it is evident that the black blood taken from the arteries of an animal dying of asphyxia, and injected into the brain of another, will be the cause of death.
The experiment will be found to succeed--cut the trachea, of a dog, and tie it up hermetically; then in the course of two or three minutes, open the carotid and receive into a syringe the blood, which flows from the vessels; inject it into the brain of another animal, and it will die.
The following experiment is very similar, but offers a somewhat different result. 1st. Adapt a tube with a stop-cock to the trachea of a dog, and a tube of silver to the carotid, next the head, after dividing this vessel, and tie up the extremity towards the heart. 2dly. Fix the other end of the tube to the divided carotid of another dog next the heart, and tie the extremity of the vessel towards the head. 3dly. Shut the cock of the tube in the trachea, and the black blood of the one dog in a short time, will be injected into the brain of the other.
The appearances above described will shortly afterwards succeed, but not so soon as in the former experiment, and if the transfusion be stopped, the animal which has been asphyxiated in this way, may recover and live. In the preceding experiment he will always die. It appears then that some extraneous pernicious principle is imbibed by the venous blood, when in contact with the air. Observe that for the latter experiment the dog from which the brain of the other is to be injected, must be stronger and more vigorous than the other. The reasons are evident.
I was desirous of trying whether the venous blood would not be capable of keeping up the cerebral action, if reddened artificially. For this purpose I opened the jugular and the carotid of a dog, and received the blood of the vein in a vessel filled with oxygen; it immediately became of a vivid purple, but on its injection into the brain, the animal was very suddenly killed. I was much surprised at this result, but ceased to be so on remarking, that a great quantity of air was mixed with the fluid, and that it arrived upon the brain, in a state of foam: now we know that a very small number of bubbles are sufficient to kill an animal, whether they be introduced on the side of the brain, or on that of the heart.