80 THE SECRETIONS : 



unless air-bubbles were entangled in it, and exhibited no change 

 for a considerable time, but ultimately became whiter. With 

 the aid of the microscope, Gruby observed, 1st, a white amor- 

 phous mass, not acted on by water (coagulated inucin,) and 2d, 

 round yellowish-white globules, whose number seemed in a 

 direct ratio with the intensity of the yellow colour of the mucus. 

 These cells which were observed in the mucus of the larynx, 

 had eight times the diameter of the blood-corpuscles, were inti- 

 mately connected with the amorphous white mass, and consisted 

 of a very delicate transparent capsule that was easily ruptured, 

 of an inner round cell with a nucleus twice as large as a blood- 

 corpuscle, and very many small vesicles one sixth the diameter 

 of the blood-corpuscles, some of which were transparent and 

 some opaque. The large vesicles sometimes contained two inner 

 central cells. 



I have also frequently observed these large cells (which 

 strongly resemble the full primary cells described and figured 

 by Henle, 1 ) in the gray or yellow-streaked gelatinous mucous 

 flocculi which are expectorated during a slight catarrh of the 

 trachea and bronchi, as well as in the thick, tough, yellow 

 nasal mucus that is secreted during a cold. I have repre- 

 sented this bronchial mucus in fig. 16, in which a a represent 

 the large cells. Other observers have detected these cells in tu- 

 bercular matter ; it is clear, however, that they occur in diseased 

 mucus, and are not to be regarded as diagnostic of tubercle. 



Gruby found that the mucus in ophthalmoblennorrhoea, and 

 in the uterine and vaginal discharges of some women after their 

 confinement, is of a deep yellow colour, thready and opaque ; 

 it sinks in water and forms flocculi, which, on being stirred, dis- 

 colour the fluid ; but after remaining in the water for some time, 

 they lose their power of communicating their colour to a fresh 

 supply of clear water. This mucus, when dried, forms a yellow, 

 transparent, brittle mass, which continues to burn when lighted. 

 Under the microscope, a white amorphous mass, insoluble in 

 water, is observed, together with a large number of yellow 

 vesicles of the form and nature of those previously described, 

 some with, and others without a central cell. These vesicles swell 

 in water, the capsule bursts, the inclosed molecules escape, and 



1 Ueber Schleim und Eiterbildung u. s. w. fig. 14. 



