PUS. 93 



15 '2; albumen, 40-1. Martins 1 analysed a purulent fluid ob- 

 tained from a patient with empyema, from whom 153 ounces of 

 matter were evacuated. It was tolerably thick, of a dirty 

 greenish-gray colour, devoid of odour, and had a slightly acid 

 reaction : when heated it swelled very much ; it sunk to the 

 bottom in water, but on agitation the two fluids mixed. On 

 boiling it, some floccules separated themselves, but no coagula- 

 tion took place ; the fluid, after filtration, was of the colour of 

 sherry, and had a specific gravity of llll'o. 2 The principal 

 constituents were water, fat, albumen, extractive matter, glutin, 

 potash, soda, magnesia, lime, ammonia, phosphoric, hydrochloric, 

 and lactic acids. Koch 3 analysed pus with very similar results : 

 it is not stated from whence the pus was obtained; it consisted 

 of water, albumen, extractive matter, mucus,, and pus-corpuscles. 

 In addition to the salts found by Martius, Koch detected car- 

 bonates and sulphates, resulting from the action of heat on 

 lactic acid and sulphur during incineration. 



John 4 describes pus from the ovary of a consumptive woman, 

 as a greenish fluid, of the consistence of a liniment, and with a 

 peculiar odour; it contained albumen, a substance resembling 

 that substance, resin, gelatinous matter, and the ordinary salts, 

 together with carbonate of ammonia. 



Chevallier 5 found in pus from a syphilitic bubo in the axilla, 

 ten days after its formation, albumen, gluten, chlorides of po- 

 tassium, sodium, and ammonium, with some sulphates ; it was 

 viscid, of a blood-red colour, of a sickly odour, neutral, and 

 coagulated on heating. The fluid from an abscess, in a case of 

 spina bifida, contained, according to Bostock, water, 978 ; 

 chloride of sodium, 10; albumen, 5; mucus, 5 ; gelatin, 2; and 

 a trace of lime. The fluid which Gruby obtained from the 

 pustules in smallpox, twenty or thirty hours after the commence- 

 ment of the eruption, had an alkaline reaction; it contained 

 some white, nearly transparent molecules, and round caudate 

 infusoria. On the third day pus-corpuscles were observable, 

 and subsequently became more numerous. 



1 Annal. der Phann. 24. p. 79. 



2 This must be an error of observation or a misprint. 



3 Diss. inaug. Berol. 1825. 



4 Chemische Untersuchungen, vol. 2. 1812, p. 120. 



5 Gmelin's Chemie, vol. 2, p. 1395. 



