CHANGES OF THE SUPERFICIAL ENDOTHELIUM. 63 



normally to be seen a germinating endothelium, a condition, it seems, 

 overlooked by Ranvier and Kundrat. We have further shown, in the 

 second chapter, that the knots and cords are not exactly to be regarded 

 as pre-existing adenoid tissue, nor as collections of lymph-corpuscles, 

 but that they are developed for the most part out of ordinary branched 

 cells of the tissue in fact, as peri-lymphangial knots and cords ; and 

 more, that the farther the development is advanced the more numerous 

 are the lymph-corpuscles at the spot the more does the cellular 

 network assume the character of an adenoid network. 



Finally, we have pointed out, in the third chapter, that normally, 

 in the omentum and the mediastinal pleura, knots and cords originate 

 by the outgrowth of the endothelium of the lymphatic capillaries as a 

 network of branched cells, from which young cells spring. 



Thus we see that all the views of the authors are applicable to a 

 certain extent to the normal serous membranes the views of Kundrat 

 and Ranvier, of KnaufT and Sanderson, and finally of Klebs. We shall 

 now show in this section how far these views are applicable in patho- 

 logical relations. 



1. The Changes of the Superficial Endothelium. 



a. When severe acute peritonitis is produced in a rabbit, guinea-pig, 

 dog, or cat, for example, by the introduction of ammonia, of a solution 

 of iodine in hydro-iodic acid, or of toxic pysemic fluids, which latter 

 kill the animals in a period varying from twelve to forty-eight hours, 

 into the peritoneal cavity, the mesentery, the intestinal serosa, the 

 omentum, and the peritoneum of the centrum tendineum appear ex- 

 traordinarily hyperaemic, if an opportunity is afforded of examining 

 the animal during the first twenty-four or forty-eight hours. The 

 abdominal cavity contains mostly, but not always, a greater or smaller 

 quantity of bloody-coloured fluid, with abundant separation of fibrine. 

 In these cases of severe acute peritonitis, the endothelium of the surface 

 exhibits a common character it appears, that is to say, loosened and 

 removed over great parts. The fluid contains, accordingly, an abundance 

 of isolated membranes composed of endothelial cells, and the surface of 

 many parts is deprived of its endothelium. Many of the endothelial 



