PUS-CORPUSCLES. 71 



4. Pus-corpuscles. We are entitled to consider the pus-cor- 

 puscles as- cells, by the same arguments which we applied to 

 those of mucus. Vogel, indeed, regards them as identical 

 with those mucus-corpuscles which, according to his view, arc 

 morbidly secreted, but which Ilenle believes to be normal. 

 Thcv are similarly affected bv acetic acid, and cannot therefore 

 be young epithelial cells, in which, according to Ilenle, the 

 splitting of the nucleus does not take place under similar cir- 

 cumstances ; indeed, that property appears to be confined en- 

 tirely to the nuclei of the mucus and pus-corpuscles. Vogel 

 states that the nuclei of pus- corpuscles are concave. The pus- 

 corpuscles are thus peculiar cells which are formed in the 

 serum of pus, — i. e. in cytoblastema, exuded during inflamma- 

 tion, in increased quantity, and of anomalous composition, — • 

 precisely in the same manner that mucus-corpuscles originate 

 in mucus, and, indeed, as all cells form in their cytoblastema, 

 in accordance with the fundamental law already laid down. 

 According to the observations of H. Wood, they appear to be 

 earliest formed upon the surface of the granulations, and for 

 the reason that their cytoblastema, the pus-serum, is constantly 

 exuding freshest at that part, and therefore possesses in that 

 situation the greatest amount of plastic force, as we have 

 already observed in reference to the formation of new yelk- 

 cells on the outside and in the neighbourhood of the vitelline 

 membrane. It is, however, probable that the pus-cells pursue 

 an independent growth for a period, as we have seen to be the 

 case with respect to those yelk-cells which were far removed 

 from the vitelline membrane. It is also most likely that the 

 nuclei of the pus-cells are their first formed part, but I have no 

 investigations on the subject. The more healthy the pus, the 

 greater is its plastic force, and the greater the number of cells 

 which are formed in it, so that in healthy pus the quantity of 

 serum is very small in comparison with the number of cells. 



I cannot state whether the oil-globules which are present in 

 certain secretion^, such as milk and chyle, are contained in 

 cells or not. I have not been able to detect anything indi- 

 cating that they arc so in milk; and, according to the theory 

 of the secretions, which will be communicated at a subsequent 

 stage of the work, there does not appear to be any necessity 

 why they should be so. 



