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47. Dr. Baumgartner* describes tubercle as a species of false 

 membrane, analogous in all respects in the. formative process to the 

 development of the ovum. The granular bodies are analogous to 

 those of the yelk they resemble ; out of them, as out of the yelk, 

 formative globules are developed, and then these latter change into 

 cells. Here, however, the analogy ceases. The cells of the healthy 

 process unite together to form different tissues ; the pus cells remain 

 in this low stage of development. 



48. According to Dr. Robert M. Glover, in his Fothergillian prize 

 essay, for 1846, the ordinary element of tubercle is the granular 

 corpuscle, described by several writers, which constitutes almost the 

 entire mass of some tubercles. The size of the corpuscles varies from 

 about that of a blood globule to the yo^ooo °f an i ncn - They are 

 yellowish, with occasionally spots in their substance which may be 

 nuclei. Mixed with these are the following elements, which may be 

 altered cells or new formations ; epithelial scales variously altered ; 

 fat globules ; crystal of salts ; portions of destroyed tissue sometimes 

 assuming singular shapes ; cells apparently belonging to the old tis- 

 sues, and large granular and corpuscular masses of the most irregular 

 forms. The corpuscular granules which constitute the essential ele- 

 ment of tubercle may arise from an error of nutrition. 



49. M. Bouchardatf has given his views of the nature of phthisis 

 and its relation to diabetes. He thus describes the formation of 

 tubercle. It is formed by the reunion of particular globules, which 

 have no existence in the animal economy in the healthy state. They 

 are developed spontaneously in the bodies of animals placed under 

 certain circumstances. They unite and coalesce, and become de- 

 stroyed by giving rise to secondary products and to fresh organized 

 globules. The circumstances under which they are developed, are, 

 when the system is reduced by bad nourishment, or by excessive 

 continued and unrepaired loss of some fluid, essential to the animal 

 economy, such as lymph and serum from too abundant suppurations, 

 or waste of the spermatic fluid from venereal excesses, &c. Diabetes 

 may in this way be a cause of tubercle. In patients with sound 

 lungs, labouring under diabetes, we may predict the formation of 

 tubercle. Now, as we know the nature of diabetes, we may in this 

 particular case, arrive at a positive etiology of tubercular affection, 

 and state it thus : — 1st. Perversion in the digestion of feculents ; 



• British and For. Med. Rev., July, 1847. -j- Med. Times, May 1, 1847. 



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