DR. CHAMBERS, ON MUCUS AND PUS. 297 
«Hach of the globules appears to be a centre of life, into 
which nourishment passes from the outside, and enables them 
to increase in number.” ‘ Mucus,” says the lecturer, “ may 
be regarded as a parasite, receiving from the body its nutri- 
ment indeed, but not its form nor its claim to vitality.” 
The similar globules forming the bulk of pus are, when in 
freshly secreted matter of all shapes and sizes irregular, 
budding, with or without nuclei; but in that which has been 
secreted some time, the globules are nearly all of one size, 
even, and spherical. This seems to indicate a general change 
of form by time—a certain completion of creation in that 
which has been the longest formed. The growth of these 
globules is not, in Dr. Chambers’ opinion, comparable with 
that of ordinary cells; for some of the buds spoken of are 
not derivatives from the central nuclei, but new starting 
points of growth. He, therefore, considers the globules 
themselves as nuclei, or rather composed of nuclear matter. 
Dr. Beale has shown that when tissues are steeped in a 
solution of carmine, the nuclei or young growing matter in 
them are the only parts which receive a permanent stain. 
Now, the entire mass of the mucous globules receives a 
permanent stain from carmine, and they appear, therefore, 
to be equivalent to the nuclear matter of ordinary cells. 
The question now arises as to how these mucous globules make 
their way to to the surface of the membrane, where they are 
found. They are developed beneath the epithelium, whereas, 
when we find them, they are quite uncovered. Dr. Buhl, 
of Munich, has shown that they undergo a modification, and 
pass through the epithelium. He has seen them in transitu. 
Dr. Chambers suggests that these bodies may want the 
solidity they appear to possess, and yet have a definite shape 
and form, and considers it at least an open question, whether 
both epithelial scales and elementary globules may not 
possess rather the properties we attribute to fluids. The 
observations of Henle, Rindfleisch, and others, Dr. Chambers 
remarks, ‘seem to show that the pus or mucus globule on 
mucous membranes is the material of young or renovated 
epithelial cells, arrested in its development at the earliest 
dawn of life, before it has assumed the form of a cell, when 
it is as unlike its destined final form as an egg is to a 
chicken. They seem to show that in this state it may be 
thrown directly off by the epithelium being broken, or it 
may pass into the substance of the epithelium. In either 
case it does not part with the low degree of life it has ac- 
quired ; but neither does it acquire a higher degree; it goes 
on propagating, but nothing more.” Buhl’s observations 
