223 



texture, though the changes are not so rapid as to lead to 

 the production of actual pus. The spongy texture produced 

 may be regarded as occupying the position midway between 

 healthy epithelial tissue and the pathological germinal matter 

 or pus. I have observed these facts in the young rapidly- 

 growing, but as yet imperfectly-4»rmed epithelial particles in 

 specimens taken from the surface of the j)harynx in a case of 

 slight sore-throat coming on in a person enjoying ordinarily 

 good health. The mode in which the masses divide and sub- 

 divide cou.ld be well seen, and the thick plastic character of the 

 matter of which they are composed has been well given in 

 drawings. The greater part of the material consists of living 

 matter or bioplasm, some of which has probably undergone 

 conversion into soft-formed material, which, however, still re- 

 mains mingled with it. From any part of one of these masses 

 diverticula might have been formed, and thus new bioplasts, 

 each capable of undergoing conversion into an epithelial cell, 

 result. Many epithelial formations exhibit much the same 

 changes in disease, aud the gradual transition from the healthy 

 to the morbid state is beautifully indicated. Nay, Ave may 

 almost conceive that it is by unremitting continuance of this 

 very process, combined with irregularity in the rate of multi- 

 plication of contiguous particles, that the remarkable patho- 

 logical formation, epithelial cancer, results. 



If, then, the bioplasts of a tissue receive an unusually 

 abundant supply of nutrient matter, they grow and multiply 

 just like the amoeba, the white blood-corpuscle, the mucus- 

 corpuscle, and the pus-corpuscle, and they may give origin to 

 pus. Masses of bioplasm which under ordinary circum- 

 stances would form cuticle, grow and live very fast, and lose 

 their cuticle-forming property. The changes are well shown 

 in fig. 6, Plate XIV, to the left of which, at abed, are repre- 

 sented separate cells, the bioplasm of which is growing and 

 dividing and subdividing. The cells multiply faster than any 

 cuticle cells, and the numerous descendants at last produced 

 are pus corpuscles. From these pus bioplasts diverticula 

 proceed, and particles are from time to time detached which 

 are extremely minute, and by their movements may -p^Ans 

 through very narrow chinks in tissues, and thus spread from 

 the point where they were developed: not only so, but so 

 minute are these particles of pus bioplasm, that, like the little 

 germs detached from the yeast cells and other microscojDic 

 fungi, the amoeba germ, and many others, the atmosphere Avill 

 support them ; they may thus be wafted long distances from the 

 spot where they were produced. If exposed to great heat or 

 cold, or to the action of certain gases or vapours, they Avili be 



