I 2 6 ON THE GROWTH AND 



the abscess, some are descendants of white blood-cor- 

 puscles, others of the bioplasm of the tissue, vessels, 

 and nerves. The pus-corpuscle may therefore be a 

 descendant of the white blood-corpuscle, as well as 

 of the germinal matter of epithelium, and of other 

 tissues. We may, indeed, trace back its parentage to 

 the original embryonic bioplasmic mass, which must 

 be regarded as the primitive ancestor of all. 



New Observations on the Growth and Multiplication 

 of Pus. The researches upon which the conclusions 

 here briefly expressed, are based, have proved, I 

 think, as I showed in the first course of lectures 

 which I gave at the Royal College of Physicians, 

 1 86 1, that the pus corpuscle is not formed by the 

 breaking up of the tissue, and the aggregation of 

 lifeless particles resulting therefrom. Nor is pus 

 produced by the precipitation of particles from a 

 clear exudation and their subsequent aggregation to 

 form masses, as Dr. Bennett of Edinburgh supposes. 

 Pus, as I have endeavoured to show, is a form of living 

 germinal matter, and has descended uninterruptedly 

 from the normal germinal matter of the body. 

 Virchow concluded that pus was formed in connective 

 tissue corpuscles and in epithelial cells only. But 

 there is little doubt that pus may be derived by very 

 rapid growth from any germinal matter in the body. 



The pus corpuscles usually figured and described 

 are dead, not living. These spherical granular cor- 

 puscles have no longer the power of growth or multipli- 



