FORMA TION OF PUS-BIOPLASTS. 



245 



up by certain forms of bioplasm and converted into bio- 

 plasm than in the normal state. Hence there is, at least 

 temporarily, in the parts affected, increase in bulk. Cells 

 of particular organs, which live very slowly in health, 

 live very fast in certain forms of disease. More 

 pabulum reaches them, and they grow more rapidly in 

 consequence. PI. V, fig. 2, p. 220. ' 



Formation of the Pus-Bioplasts. The outer hardened 

 formed material of an epithelial cell of cuticle, or of a 

 mucous membrane may " be torn or ruptured mechanically, 

 as in a scratch or prick by insects (PI. XI, figs. 5, 6) ; or 

 it may be rendered soft and more permeable to nutrient 

 pabulum by the action of certain fluids which bathe it, figs. 

 3, 4. In either case it is clear that the access of pabulum to 

 the bioplasm must be facilitated by the injury, and the living 

 matter necessarily "grows" (that is, certain of the con- 

 stituents of the pabulum that come into contact with the 

 bioplasm are converted into matter like itself) at an in- 

 creased rate. The mass of bioplasm increases in size, and 

 soon begins to divide into smaller portions, PI. XI, figs. 3 

 to 8. Parts seem to move away from the general mass. 

 These at length become detached, and thus several separate 

 masses of bioplasm, which are embedded in the softened 

 and altered formed material, result, figs. 6, 7, 8. In this 

 way the so-called inflammatory product /z^f results. The ab- 

 normal pus-corpuscle may be produced from the bioplasm or 

 living matter of a normal epithelial or other cell, or elementary 

 part, the bioplasm of which has been supplied with pabulum 

 much more freely than in the normal state. 



The "pus-corpuscle," then, itself is a mass of living 

 matter derived, it may be, from normal bioplasm, which has 



