At the end of a period, very different according to the degree of temperature, the arterial texture yields finally to maceration and putrefaction. In the first case, it softens gradually without changing colour, loses the adhesion of its fibres, and is ultimately resolved into a pulp almost homogeneous and greyish. In the second case, it becomes greyish at first, then is reduced also to a pulp, and when all the fluid part is evaporated, there is left a kind of coal wholly different from that which remains after the putrefaction of the muscles. In general, it requires much longer time to soften the arterial texture by maceration than by putrefaction; which shows the superiority of the action of the air over that of water, in the production of this phenomenon. Exposed to the contact of caloric, the arterial texture curls up, contracts and exhibits the horny hardening in the highest degree. If the action of water is added to that of caloric, which produces boiling, the following is the result of it. 1st. Very little froth rises before ebullition, from the vessel that contains the arterial texture; we might say that this texture and the muscular present in this respect, two opposite phenomena in the economy; the small quantity of froth that arises from the first, is greyish. 2d. At the moment of ebullition, there is an evident horny hardening, less however than that of the nervous texture, more sensible in the direction of the diameters than in that of the axis; a hardening accompanying this horny hardening, and a yellowish tinge of the liquor. 3d. This state continues for half an hour or more, ebullition constantly going on. 4th. Successive softening; but at the same time a greyish tinge succeeding to the yellow colour; want of adhesion among the fibres, increasing as the ebullition goes on, so that they break with great ease. 5th. However prolonged may be the ebullition, the arterial texture is never reduced, like the fibrous, the cartilaginous, &c. to a gelatinous and yellowish pulp. The fibres remain as they are, in the same relation, with the same size, &c. The want of adhesion and the change of colour are almost the only phenomena they experience. 5th. The broth, produced by the boiling, is insipid and tasteless, a proof how few neutral salts the arterial texture contains. The action of the concentrated acids curls this texture, afterwards softens it, finally dissolves it in the form of a pulp, yellowish by the nitric, and blackish by the sulphuric. Most of the others have a less sensible action than these two. When they are diluted, there is no horny hardening at the moment the artery is immersed in them; but its texture is gradually softened, and can be broken with the least effort, as after boiling. It is never reduced to a fluid state, how long soever it may continue in the acid.