ALBUMINOUS EXUDATIONS. 143 



tubercles consist chiefly of cholesterin, which may be recognised 

 by the microscope, together with carbonate of lime, and a little 

 phosphate of lime. The tubercles are generally deficient in salts, 

 although the statements of authors on this point are as variable as 

 the results which I obtained from my analyses of the different 

 forms of these exudations. There is on an average more car- 

 bonate of lime in the ash of tubercles than in that of any other 

 substance of the animal body which is rich in protein. The recent 

 observation, that xantho-cystine occurs in old tubercles, is very 

 remarkable, but I have not hitherto had any opportunity of veri- 

 fying the correctness of this assertion. [See note to vol. i, p. 169, 

 (on xanthine) in the Appendix.] 



We must confess our inability to form a perfectly clear idea of 

 Rokitansky's albuminous exudations, although we do not by any 

 means believe that they can be classed under the same head as 

 the purulent, or any other form of exudation. We have found 

 that they presented very considerable chemical differences ; and 

 the turbidity which occasionally gives them a milk-white ap- 

 pearance is probably the simultaneous result of many different 

 relations. The microscope shows that, in addition to the cellular 

 elements, which occasionally become developed into spindle-shaped 

 or caudate cells, there occur also a number of molecular granules, 

 fat-globules, and a viscid filamentous substance, forming under 

 the microscope hyaline stripes, and here and there probably also 

 flakes of true fibrin. The turbidity arises in different cases from 

 different microscopical elements. 



This filamentous matter cannot, however, be regarded as true 

 coagulated fibrin ; for, independently of the circumstance that it 

 cannot microscopically be confounded with ordinary fibrin, (since, 

 like bronchial mucus, it acquires its filamentous appearance solely 

 from the pushing or turning of the thin glass plate covering 

 it, or from other mechanical conditions,) it differs completely 

 from fibrin in the following chemical reactions. It commonly 

 dissolves with considerable facility in solutions of neutral alkaline 

 salts, when not too highly concentrated, without requiring any 

 prolonged digestion or exposure to heat. Besides this, it fre- 

 quently acquires a certain degree of opacity or milky turbidity, and 

 is rendered less tough when exposed to the action of dilute acetic 

 acid, dissolving only in an excess of this acid, or when it is con- 

 centrated; and, (excepting in two cases,) it has been found to 

 dissolve easily in very dilute hydrochloric acid. The molecular 

 granules occasionally consits of fat only, but they may frequently 



