120 INCREASED MULTIPLICATION 



in Fig. 42 under a power magnifying 700. The mode 

 in which the masses divide and subdivide could be 

 well seen, and the thick plastic character of the matter 

 of which they are .composed has been carefully given 

 in drawings. The greater part of the material consists 

 of living matter or bioplasm, some of which has pro- 

 bably undergone conversion into soft-formed material, 

 which, however, still remains mingled with it. From 

 any part of one of these masses diverticula might 

 have been formed, and thus new bioplasts, each 

 capable of undergoing conversion into an epithelial 

 cell, would result. Many epithelial formations exhibit 

 much the same changes in disease, and the transition 

 from the healthy to the morbid state is beautifully 

 indicated (Fig. 43). Nay, we may almost conceive that 

 it is by unremitting continuance of this very process, 

 combined with irregularity in the rate of multiplica- 

 tion of contiguous particles, that the remarkable 

 pathological formation of epithelial cancer results 

 (Fig. 44, pi. X.}. 



If, then, the bioplasts of a tissue receive an un- 

 usually abundant supply of nutrient matter, they 

 grow and multiply just like the amceba, the white 

 blood-corpuscle, the mucus-corpuscle, and the pus- 

 corpuscle, and they may give origin to pus. Masses 

 of bioplasm which under ordinary circumstances would 

 form cuticle, grow and live so very fast, that there is 

 not time for their cuticle-forming property to manifest 

 itself. The changes are well shown in Fig. 45, pi. XL, 



