ORGANIC PRINCIPLES. 79 



as it is sometimes called, coagulable lymph, which repairs losses 

 of tissue. As the process of repair of parts after destruction 

 must be considered as analogous to, and almost identical with, 

 ordinary nutrition, the above question, which is so important 

 in pathology, is one of great physiological interest. 



The conditions under which the organization of fibrin has 

 been assumed to have taken place, are in clots remaining 

 after vascular extravasations, and fibrinous exudations upon 

 inflamed surfaces. The most important information is to be 

 derived from a study of the anatomical characters of such 

 effusions. By the microscope, and all means of investigation 

 which are at our command, it is impossible to distinguish in 

 these effusions any thing but fibrin. There are no blood- 

 vessels, nerves, nor any anatomical elements which would 

 lead us to suppose them capable of self-regeneration, that 

 distinctive property of all organized tissues; and, in addi- 

 tion, these are never developed. The changes which these 

 effusions undergo are retrograde in their character ; and the 

 fibrin, if it be not absorbed, remains as a foreign substance. 

 The fibrillation which takes place is by no means an evidence 

 of even commencing organization ; for in effusions into the 

 tissues it soon disappears, and if the effusion be not too large, 

 the mass breaks down and is finally absorbed. When, on 

 the other hand, effusion of organizable lymph takes place, 

 the process is very different. It is elaborated, indeed, rather 

 than effused; first appearing as a homogeneous fluid, in 

 which fibro-plastic nuclei, then fibres, are developed, and in 

 some instances blood-vessels, lymphatics, and nerves. Ac- 

 cording to Robin, plastic lymph does not even contain fibrin ; * 

 much less are the two identical. The process of organization 

 is slow and gradual, and in no case does it take place from 

 the blood, or elements of the blood, suddenly or accidentally 

 effused. 



There can be no doubt that effused and coagulated 



1 Dictionnaire de NYSTEN, par ROBIN et LITTRE, Taris, 1858. " Lymph Plas- 

 tique." 



