REPAEATORY INFLAMMATION IN ARTERIES. 53 



of Cornil and Ranvier (Manuel d'Histologie Pathologique) on 

 the behavior of the endothelial covering of the trabeculne of 

 the omentum of adult animals. 



They found that after inflammation has been artificially ex- 

 cited, the peritoneal fluid becomes cloud}^ and contains many 

 cellular elements somewhat similar to pus-corpuscles ; others 

 more voluminous, having one or more oval nuclei; and inter- 

 mediate cells between these two. In cells which are applied to 

 the trabeculoe are observed all the phenomena of multiplication. 

 The multiplication is such that the h3^pertrophied cells form 

 projections on the trabeculae ; or they are adherent to it, at one 

 time by a large surface, at another by a single point ; the}' 

 become detached, and may continue to live and vegetate iso- 

 lated in the peritoneal fluid. Their protoplasm, which is 

 soft and granular, is susceptible of taking the most varied 

 forms and of giving birth to ama'boid prolongations and to 

 new cells. After five or six days the majority of the de- 

 tached voluminous and turgid cells reapply themselves to the 

 trabeculae, while presenting projecting bellies. They shrink, 

 flatten themselves against the trabeculae, present a protoi)lasm 

 more or less similar to that of their primitive type, and may 

 assume later the appearance of endothelium. 



I conceive it possible for the endothelium of the vascular 

 tract to undergo similar metamorphoses. 



Applying the foregoing to the subject before us, it seems 

 probable that in addition to the ordinary white corpuscles of 

 the blood and their immediate descendants, there may be pres- 

 ent, V)0th in the plastic clot and in the blood of a ligated 

 artery, other somewhat similar, often larger, corpuscles, which 

 are the metamorphosed endothelial cells of the lining mem- 

 brane or their descendants. 



Furthermore, it is highly probable that among the epithelioid 

 cells which constitute the mass of an organizing clot, and 

 which spring, in the main, from the endothelial cells of the ad- 



