198 On the Real Nature Brel ii 
may be made out, and a conception formed of the several changes 
which occur, and at last end in the development of the poison. 
The morbid change is sometimes limited to the effusion of serum 
and the production of “ inflammatory lymph,” but in other stances 
the inflammation proceeds to a further stage, and actual pus is 
generated. Peritonitis is an example of an inflammation which 
much more frequently proceeds to the formation of pus than inflam- 
mation of other serous membranes. The greater vascularity of the 
peritoneum as compared with allied textures may perhaps account 
for this fact. It is interesting to discuss briefly the characters of 
the different “inflammatory products,” as they are called, resulting 
from peritoneal inflammation, varying in intensity. 
In slight inflammation there is great vascular distension, 
accompanied as in other cases by the escape of exudation in which 
are suspended particles of bioplasm. The exudation coagulates 
upon the surfaces of the serous membrane, perhaps glueing them 
together. The fluid portion is gradually absorbed, and if the case 
progresses to recovery, much of the coagulated matter is also taken 
up, a little being transformed into fibrous tissue, resulting in a few 
“adhesions,” or mere thickening of the serous membrane, as the 
case may be. 
When, however, the intensity of the inflammation is more 
marked, the little particles of bioplasm originally derived from the 
white blood-corpuscles, grow and multiply, and with the fibrinous 
matter in which they are entangled form transparent flocculi, which 
are suspended in the serous part of the exudation, or adhere here 
and there loosely to the peritoneal surface. Many of these flocculi 
are found to contain multitudes of bioplasm particles, and often- 
times a vast number of these are suspended in the fluid, and congre- 
gated here and there, form little collections upon the surface of the 
delicate serous membrane, to which they adhere and where they 
ow. 
If the inflammatory process still continues, and increases in 
severity, the vascular congestion becomes more marked, and the 
exudation is poured out from the blood more abundantly; the 
masses of bioplasm increase in number yet faster, and the exudation 
in consequence appears nearly opaque. ‘The flocculi are of a yel- 
lowish colour, and look very like pieces of clotted cream which stick 
here and there to the peritoneum, covering the intestines and 
the inner surface of the abdominal parietes. Not unfrequently the 
surface is smeared over in places with whitish pasty masses of soft 
cream-like matter, in the intervals between which the highly- 
injected vessels stand out with great distinctness. The masses of 
bioplasm would now be called pus-corpuscles. Here, then, is an 
interesting example of the production of spus-corpuscles by the 
rapid growth and multiplication of particles of bioplasm which 
