THE 



LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



OCTOBER 1842. 



XLII. Contributions to the Minute Anatomy of Animals. By 

 George Gulliver, F.R.S., fyc. fyc. — No. IV.* 



On the Structure of Fibrinous Exudations or False Membranes. 



\ S mentioned in the last Number of the Philosophical 

 **• Magazine, p. 171, in false membranes, resulting from 

 inflammation, the structure is frequently identical with that of 

 fibrine which has coagulated within or out of the body simply 

 from rest. In friable exudations, as I have noticed in Ger- 

 ber's Anatomy, p. 29-30, fig. 234, the corpuscles approach 

 pretty nearly in number and appearance to those of pus, ex- 

 cept that the former are commonly more loosein texture than 

 the 4atter. In these exudations too the fibrils are now and 

 then not visible, though they may often be seen clearly enough, 

 and the minute molecules are generally very abundant, yet 

 occasionally scanty, and sometimes altogether absent, or at 

 least not recognizable- 



The figures in Gerber's Anatomy (244-251) are tolerably 

 good representations of the fibrils and corpuscles which may 

 be commonly seen in clots of fibrine. The fault of some of 

 those drawings is that the fibrils are depicted too forcibly, and 

 without that softness which they present when viewed in a 

 clear transmitted light. Indeed, these fibrils often form a 

 network so extremely delicate that it must be a matter of 

 some difficulty to get it struck off satisfactorily, even if the 

 drawings are made with accuracy ; and the same remark is 

 applicable to the more straight and parallel arrangement 

 which these fibrils often assume. 



The structure of false membranes will now be illustrated 



* Communicated by the Author, August 26, 1842. No. III. will be found 

 in our last Number, p. 168. 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 21. No. 138. Oct. 1842. R 



