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



fore I had turned my attention to the state of the blood in 

 phthisis. He has lately informed me that he has found pus 

 in the blood in seventeen instances after death, in sixteen of 

 which there was declared suppuration, and in one none could 

 be detected : in the latter, the patient died of acute inflam- 

 matory disease. 



Before considering the conclusions to be deduced from the 

 preceding observations, it may be proper to advert briefly to 

 the nature and use of suppuration, although I shall have oc- 

 casion to bring forward the evidence on matters of opinion in 

 a more systematic form in a future part of these researches. 



Since the microscopic observations of Mr. Hunter, Sir Eve- 

 rard Home, and Mr. Bauer, the opinion has often been ex- 

 pressed in this country, that the globules of pus are nothing but 

 those of blood, modified by the inflammatory process. I be- 

 lieve Sir Astley Cooper and the late Dr. Young came long ago 

 to this conclusion. Finally, on the continent, M. Gendrin, 

 without much regard to the observations of English patho- 

 logists, adopts precisely the same theory, supported indeed 

 by a series of very ingenious experiments, which have been 

 generally considered conclusive on this subject. 



I have repeated the experiments of M. Gendrin with great 

 care, and although I see no reason to dissent from that part 

 of his conclusion already stated as having been long since ad- 

 vanced in this country, I have not been able to observe the 

 phaenomena related in his work. It seems not improbable 

 that M. Gendrin was influenced by the erroneous views of 

 M. Milne Edwards as to the globular structure of fibrine; for 

 M. Gendrin states in one place that pus is but a modification 

 of fibrine, although in others he informs us that it is a trans- 

 formation of the blood-corpuscles that constitutes suppuration. 

 By cauterizing the web of a frog's foot under the micro- 

 scope, or by elevating on the polished blade of a lancet a film 

 of the edge of a wound previously made in the part, he as- 

 sures us how easy it is to see the blood-particles gradually 

 transformed into those of pus. I regret to say that I have 

 not been able to succeed in this observation, because I found, 

 after repeated trials, that I could not by any means induce 

 suppuration in batrachian reptiles. 



With regard to the conversion of clots of fibrine into pus, 

 some experiments to be adduced in another section of this in- 

 quiry, render it extremely probable that the matter often found 

 in the centre of such clots in the heart and great vessels, is 

 nothing more than softened fibrine ; and which, although it 

 resembles pus in some particulars, presents neither the che- 

 mical nor the microscopical character of that fluid. I have 



