oftlie Simtum in Phthisis. 183 



is often entangled. Moreover, the sooner the deposit is examined 

 the better, for by long standing, especially if there has been blood 

 in the sputum, light cloudy films, which first occupy the upper part 

 of the fluid, finally gravitate upon the tissue, and obscure it to a 

 considerable extent when removed with a pipette and placed under 

 the glass. The remedy for this, however, is shaking and reprecipi- 

 tation. For the operation here alluded to, a small beaker adapted 

 to the ring of a retort stand, a glass rod for stirring, a spirit lamp, 

 a bottle with solution of soda, a tall champagne glass, and a pipette, 

 are all the apparatus required. 



"When the case is complicated with much bronchitis, the first 

 part of the expectoration with a fit of coughing usually consists of 

 frothy mucus, after which it gradually becomes more dense and 

 purulent, and better suited for examination. By receiving the 

 sputum directly into the beaker at this period, much trouble may 

 be saved, and there will be less chance of contracting impurities 

 from without. 



The more ordinary components of the sputa in phthisis are re- 

 presented in Fig, 4, and are particularly noticed in the explanation 

 of the Figures. — Transactions of the St. Andreivs Medical 

 Graduates' Association, vol. vi. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES LXXVIII. AND LXXIX. 

 Plate LXXVIII. 

 Fig. 1. — A portion of lung, inflated and dried, in order to sliow the general 

 arrangement and comimrative size of the air-cells, as seen with a 

 half-inch power. 

 „ 2. — A portion of recent lung, divested of its epithelium and treated with 

 acetic acid, so as to show the yellovv elastic element and the nuclei 

 of the white fibrous tissue more distinctly, 



Plate LXXIX. 

 „ 3. — (a) Lung tissue obtained from the sputum of a phthisical patient, by 

 boiling in caustic soda, as described in the text. At * are one or 

 two portions of minute bronchial tulies, with the rings faintly but 

 unequivocally visible. 

 (6) Another specimen from the same sputum, with a strip of bronchial 

 basement membrane and subjacent elastic tissue. 

 „ 4. — The more ordinary components of phthisical sputa : — 



(fl) So-called exudation cells, filled with fatty granules, and occasionally 



speckled with pigment. 

 (6) The liberated contents of (k), the globules in some instances running 

 together. 



(c) Mucus-corpuscles. 



(d) Pus-corpuscles. 



(e) Blood-corpuscles. 

 (/) Epithelial scales. 



{g) All the foregoing materials, with a basis of pure glairy mucus, ex- 

 hibiting a striated appearance ; and an alteration in "the figure of 

 some of the corpuscles by pressure and traction, showing the plastic 

 nature of their contents. The mucus, pus, exudation, and epithelial 

 cells are but modifications of the same essential organism. 



