234 THE NORTHERN MICROSCOPIST. 
This fibrin is thrown out into the throat, or upon other parts, 
because it is in excess in the blood in this disease. 
Were such excess not expelled from the blood-vessels, every 
severe case of diphtheria would soon prove fatal, from the fibrillation 
of this superfluous fibrin into large clots in the heart or pulmonary 
artery, that would instantly take life, or into smaller clots that would 
be driven along through the aorta into smaller arteries that would 
arrest them, when they would cause embolism and death in that way. 
The expulsion of the excess of fibrin from the blood, upon those 
parts where it organises into a menbrane, is, therefore, a strictly 
conservative effort of nature to get such excess out of the blood 
and save the life of the patient, by avoiding its coagulation within 
the vessels, and certain death were it not expelled. 
The mis-named micrococci or The mis-named rod-like The mis-named spiral 
spherical bacteria of diphtheria. bacteria of diphtheria. bacteria of diphtheria. 
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Granules of fibrin, or the first Fibrils of fibrin, or the second Spirals of fibrin, or the con- 
stage of its fibrillation. stage of its fibrillation. tractive stage of its fibrils. 
Fig. 51. Fig. 52. ig. 53. 
It is the one especial attribute of fibrin to fibrillate, whether in 
the clot of healthy blood, in the coagula that form in the heart or 
arteries from its excess in the blood, or in diphtheritic membranes. 
And in fibrillating it always organizes first into granules (fig. 51), 
then these join together into fine threads (fig. 52), which threads 
contract into spirals, if their ends are left free from attachments, 
as shown in fig. 53. 
Consequently, there was never a drop of healthy blood coagu- 
lated that it did not yield these three forms of so-called bacteria— 
spherical, rod-like and spiral; the first two while the fibrin was 
organizing, and the last while the coagulum was contracting or 
shrinking into a smaller compass. No clot of blood could ever 
become smaller, as all do, but for the fibrils contracting into spirals, 
and thus shrivelling the whole mass. 
In the heart-clot precisely the same process is carried out, the 
excess of fibrin organizing first into granules, and these joining into 
threads, and the latter contracting into spirals. And, furthermore, 
