MATTER OF MUCUS. 101 



growth of the bioplasm of the higher animals and 

 man. 



The Living Matter or Bioplasm of Mucus. If a 

 little mucus which collects commonly enough upon 

 the soft mucous membrane of the air passages be 

 examined upon a warm glass slide, with the aid of a 

 power magnifying 700 diameters, or upwards, little 

 oval masses of germinal matter not unlike amoebae 

 will be seen in great numbers embedded in the viscid 

 transparent material which gives to the mucus its 

 properties, and which has been formed by the par- 

 ticles of the bioplasm, Fig. 31, plate V. 



By attentive examination movements will be ob- 

 served in many of these masses, not unlike those 

 above described in the case of the amoeba. Fig. 32 

 represents the changes in form in a living mucus 

 corpuscle under a power of 2,800. If the distribution 

 of nutriment to the mucus be increased, the bioplasts 

 enlarge, and divide and subdivide until vast numbers 

 result. In some cases of inflammation of the mucous 

 membrane all the viscid matter secreted upon the 

 surface appears to consist of bioplasts ordinarily 

 termed pits corpuscles, while on the other hand the 

 proportion of formed material which was abundant in 

 ordinary mucus is exceedingly small. The bioplasm 

 has multiplied so fast that there has not been time 

 for the production even of the soft mucus. 



Vital movements resembling those which have been 

 described in the amoeba, in the bioplasm of mucus, 



I 



