296 DR. CHAMBERS, ON MUCUS AND PUS. 
“The appearance they have is that of all matter when it first puts 
on life. The telescope and the microscope equally reveal to us these 
nebule as the earliest indication of vitality, drawing the surrounding 
chaos towards a central point, then exhibiting that central point as a 
kernel or nucleus. And then this kernel becomes the parent of new 
centres, individual and separate, and these again starting places of new 
action. The dawn of vitality is exhibited in the coalescence of molecules 
of organic matter so as to form nuclei, which, under favorable circum- 
stances, develop either separate cells or tissues. 
“Up to this point each focus of life seems to be a separate individual. 
It takes in nourishment by its innate power from without; it increases 
in size and alters in shape. And this alteration in shape seems prin- 
cipally to take place from within. It is not merely an aggregation out- 
side of new molecules, but a plastic change of internal appearance. Nay, 
more—it possesses the faculty of giving birth to an individual, and so to 
a succession of individuals, like itself. No better evidence of automatic 
existence can probably be given. 
“ These phenomena can be seen without much difficulty in the globules 
of mucus. That which answers best is what we often expectorate in 
little semi-transparent gelatinous lumps from the bronchi in the morning 
after exposure to night air. This must not be mixed with water or 
be allowed to cool, but kept at the temperature of the body, and put 
immediately under a lens of as high a power as you can command. Dr. 
Beale showed me the phenomena first under a 24th, but I have seen 
them very well under an 8th inch in an old-fashioned Powel’s microscope. 
Keep your eye fixed on one nuclear mass, and you will often see a 
gradual change in its appearance. First a clearer nucleus appears in it; 
then, as you gaze, two, three, or more smaller nuclei. Then the fine 
granular speck into its sides coalesce into a nucleus. ‘Then you see that 
it has a bulge in its side, and that a nucleus forms a bud, and then has 
a constricted neck or stalk. And then, perhaps, if you are lucky enough 
to get the mucus in motion without losing sight of your object, the bud 
may float off as a separate globule. Or the whole globule may divide into 
two each with a separate nucleus. 
“ A temperature below that of the body seems to check this develop- 
ment, but you may often keep it on by means of a spirit-lamp. The 
globules in which I have seen it take place are those from the trachea, 
from the os uteri, and from warm freshly-passed urine in cases of in- 
flamed bladder. $ 
“When the fluid has got dried up by the heat thus constantly applied, 
you may in some degree restore its activity by moistening it with a 
viscid animal fluid, such as saliva, The greater part, indeed, is broken 
up into molecules, and these show no disposition to unite into globules, 
but among them will remain some globules unbroken, and these will 
again form new nuclei, and bud as they did at first.” 
