250 DE. BEALE, ON THE TISSUES. 



This last stage is seen in another preparation^ which was 

 obtained from the same blister twenty-four hours after it had 

 risen. 



These specimens are most important^ as they show the 

 manner in which the formed material is produced, and how, 

 under certain altered conditions, the germinal matter may 

 increase quickly, and a vast number of separate masses may 

 be rapidly produced. The preparations just described also 

 prove that the thickness of the layer of formed material (cell- 

 wall) is determined by the rapidity of increase of the germinal 

 matter, which, in great measure, depends upon the proportion 

 of nutrient matter present. 



Formation of pus. — If the germinal matter of a structure 

 grows unusually quickly, particles resembling the pus-cor- 

 puscle, which contains very little formed material, are produced. 

 Conditions favorable to the rapid increase of germinal matter 

 are adverse to the formation of formed material. The form- 

 ation of pus from epithelial cells has been demonstrated by 

 Vircliow; but he does not seem to have observed the altera- 

 tion in the proportion of the germinal matter (nucleus and 

 cell- contents) to the formed material (cell-wall) alluded to. 

 He attaches by far the greatest importance to the formation 

 of pus in the areolar-tissue-corpuscles ; and considers that 

 from these bodies various morbid processes, which may aflect 

 other tissues, start. 



The first stage in the process seems to be the more rapid 

 multiplication of the elementary parts and the formation of a 

 diminished quantity of formed material, the tendency being 

 t awards the production of similar elementary parts. The forma- 

 tion of these is, however, prevented by the abundance of 

 nutrient material, and the rapid increase of the germinal mat- 

 ter. In certain fibrous textures, in which growth occurs more 

 rapidly than in the normal state, only soft, spongy fibres may 

 be formed; and if the process were to continue, the fibrous 

 material would be less and less, until the rapidly growing 

 spherical masses of germinal matter were produced. There 

 can be no doubt that germinal matter may even groAv and 

 multiply, so to say, at the expense of its own formed material. 



Pus is not a special formation always produced from the 

 same substance, or in a particular kind of cell, but it may 

 result from the germinal matter of any tissue, and its charac- 

 ters are modified according to the circumstances which have 

 already been alluded to. 



The living germinal matter of an elementary part may be 

 set free by the destruction of the formed material, as in a 

 scratch, perforation by the sting of an insect, or other mecha- 



