ABNORMAL FORMS OF THE NUTRITIVE PROCESS. 607 



Blood, and the plasticity of the Liquor Sanguinis will be diminished. In this 

 manner the whole system will be seriously affected, and there will be a tend- 

 ency to deposits of Pus in various organs especially in those which, like the 

 Lungs and Liver, serve as emunctories to the system without any previous 

 inflammatory changes in these parts. It has been ascertained by Mr. Addi- 

 son, that if a drop of Pus be treated with Liquor Potassse, it entirely loses its 

 opaque character, and becomes clear and transparent, like Mucus, with whose 

 tenacity and elasticity also it becomes endowed. If it be then treated with 

 acetic acid, it recovers somewhat of its former opacity ; and, when pressed 

 into a thin film, exhibits a distinct fibrillation. 



807. In persons of that peculiar constitution, which is termed Scrofulous 

 or St ruinous, we find an imperfectly-organizable or Caco-plastic deposit, or 

 even an altogether aplastic product, known by the designation of Tubercular 

 matter, frequently taking the place of the normal elements of Tissue ; both 

 in the ordinary process of Nutrition, and still more when Inflammation is set 

 up. From an examination of the Blood of Tuberculous subjects it appears, 

 that the Fibrinous element is not deficient in amount, but that it is not duly 

 elaborated ; so that the coagulum is loose, and the red corpuscles are found 

 to bear an abnormally low proportion to it. We can understand, therefore, 

 that such a constant deficiency in Plasticity must affect the ordinary nutritive 

 process ; and that there will be a liability to the deposit of cacoplastic pro- 

 ducts, without Inflammation, instead of the normal elements of tissue. Such 

 appears to be the history of the formation of Tubercles in the lungs and other 

 organs, when it occurs as a kind of metamorphosis of the ordinary Nutritive 

 process ; and in this manner it may proceed insidiously for a long period, so 

 that a large part of the tissue of the lungs shall be replaced by an amorphous 

 deposit, without any other ostensible sign than an increasing difficulty of 

 respiration. It is in the different forms of Tubercular deposit, that we see 

 the gradation most strikingly displayed between the plastic and the aplastic 

 formations. In the semi-transparent, miliary, gray, and tough yellow forms 

 of Tubercle, we find traces of organization in the form of cells and fibres, 

 more or less obvious ; these being sometimes almost as perfectly formed as 

 those of Plastic Lymph, at least on the superficial part of the deposit, which 

 is in immediate relation with the living structures around ; and sometimes so 

 degenerated, as scarcely to be distinguishable. In no instances do such de- 

 posits ever undergo further organization; and therefore they must be regarded 

 as caco-plastic. But in the opaque, crude, or yellow Tubercle, we do not 

 find even these traces of definite structure ; for the matter of which it con- 

 sists is altogether granular, more resembling that which we find in an albu- 

 minous coagulum. The larger the proportion of this kind of matter in a 

 tubercular deposit, the more is it prone to soften, whilst the semi-organized 

 tubercle has more tendency to contraction. This is entirely aplastic. 



808. Now although Tubercular matter may be slowly and insidiously de- 

 posited, by a kind of degradation of the ordinary Nutritive process, yet it can- 

 not be doubted that Inflammation has a great tendency to favour it ; so that a 

 larger quantity may be produced in the lungs, after a Pneumonia has existed 

 for a day or two, than it would have required years to generate in the pre- 

 vious mode. But the character of the deposit still remains the same ; and its 

 relation to the plastic element of the blood is shown by the interesting fact, of 

 no unfrequent occurrence, that, in a Pneumonia affecting a Tuberculous 

 subject, Plastic Lymph is thrown out in one part, whilst Tubercular matter is 

 deposited in another. Now Inflammation, producing a rapid deposition of 

 Tubercular matter, is peculiarly liable to arise in organs, which have been 

 previously affected with chronic Tubercular deposits, by an impairment of 

 the process of textural Nutrition ; for these deposits, acting like foreign bodies, 



