Mr. G. Gulliver's Researches on Suppuration. Sect. I. 199 



seen nothing like pus-globules in the softened fibrinous clots 

 of the heart ; and the rounded particles which sometimes oc- 

 cur in softened coagula of veins are probably the remains of 

 blood-corpuscles. The conversion of the latter into those of 

 pus is extremely probable, and it is equally probable that 

 this change may take place either in the capillaries or out of 

 them. In the former case, after the stagnation of the blood 

 in these vessels which preceded the suppurative process, as 

 the clot softened and the pus became mature, it would be car- 

 ried into the circulation, and hence its presence in the blood 

 independently of wounds or abscesses. 



In instances of idiopathic or traumatic phlebitis, the man- 

 ner in which the pus may become mixed with the blood is ob- 

 vious enough. There is a class of cases to which the latter 

 appellation is commonly applied, which are probably not ex- 

 amples of inflamed veins. They seem rather to be of an op- 

 posite nature; for I have seen large veins, which had been di- 

 vided many days before death, containing purulent fluid, al- 

 though their inner surfaces presented no marks of inflamma- 

 tion ; f nd the total failure of this process in them would seem 

 to have left open their wounds, so as to favour the entrance 

 of pus into them from the neighbouring parts : and this con- 

 sideration would involve an important point of practice. 



It might be asked if, on a suppurating surface, the pus-glo- 

 bules, considerably larger than those of blood, escape from 

 the capillaries, how comes it that the latter pai'ticles do not 

 escape as well ? To which it may be answered, that the dis- 

 charge of the pus-globules is preceded by the coagulation of 

 the blood in these vessels ; and that their closure, where there 

 is a breach of continuity, is provided for by the formation of 

 the clot keeping pace with its decomposition during the sup- 

 purative process ; and the blood corpuscle, reduced in size 

 by being broken down, or by losing its external part, may 

 escape, and still become enlarged out of the vessels from the 

 addition of new matter, till it assumes the character of a true 

 pus-globule : hence its larger and more unequal size and 

 irregular surface than the blood corpuscle. 



I think my experiments will render it probable that suppu- 

 ration is a sort of proximate analysis of the blood. As the 

 eifused fibrine produces swelling, or is attracted to the conti- 

 guous tissue for the reparation of injury, the blood corpuscles, 

 altei'ed by stagnation, become useless, and are discharged in 

 the shape of pus, as waste from the system. Suppuration, 

 therefore, would appear to be a physiological rather than a 

 pathological phaenomenon — pus being an excrementitious dis- 

 charge — a part of the blood which has become efi'ete and 



