VII. As a necessary deduction from the accompanying experiments, and those of M. Cruveilhier, alluded to in the previous section, we arrive at the conclusion, that a vitiated condition of the blood may give rise to inflammation of the veins in different parts of the body. The circumstances which occasionally attend reparation of the uterine veins after child-birth, will be found to lead to the same inference; and the same general proposition will derive fresh support from the consideration of this class of cases. The veins which terminate upon the placental surface of the uterus are necessarily open when this organ is distended, and become more or less perfectly closed when it contracts. In cases when the contraction is incomplete, innumerable open-mouthed orifices are left bathed in secretions, which are often offensive and undergoing decomposition; the natural protection to the vessels then, is the coagulation of the blood in them. If examined, the uterine veins will be found filled with coagula for some distance. But in cases where this power is impaired, all the uterine veins and arteries recently separated from the placenta may be found bathed in the secretions of the part, under circumstances most favourable for their absorption. The passage of diseased secretions through the vessels cannot always be traced in this, any more than in the other forms of the disease. Many of the substances introduced artificially into the circulation by M. Gaspard, produced no action upon the coats of the veins through which they passed, and yet the general symptoms were precisely similar to those originating from genuine phlebitis. In accordance with this, it may be observed that the uterine veins are often found perfectly healthy when the spermatic, or renal, or still more distant veins are thoroughly disorganized. In either case, the healthy condition of the veins near the original lesion forbids the idea of inflammation having been propagated along the coats of the vessels, while all analogy appears in favour of the disease being transmitted through their contents. In a certain number of cases no lesion will be found in any of the veins of the body, but the uterine veins will be found to contain some unnatural fluid; at other times coagula of blood, which have lost their elasticity, gritty to the feel, and greyish or light brown in appearance, will be found filling the veins or leaving intervals in them, where lymph or pus may be recognized. It matters little whether the unnatural fluids, thus found in the uterine vessels, have been absorbed from the cavity of the uterus, or are the product of venous inflammation. The effect upon the blood in either case would be the same.