FROM DISEASED ORGANISM. 197 



elasticity of the vascular walls had been much im- 

 paired during trie progress of the disease, and I think 

 it likely that in many instances the stretching had 

 been carried to such an extent as to reduce the 

 capillaries to a state of extreme tenuity, and to pro- 

 duce slight fissures in every part of the capillary wall 

 through which the injecting fluid readily escaped 

 after death. In some of these same cases we know 

 blood-corpuscles had passed out during life. 



Now there can be no question as to the extreme 

 distension suffered by some of the capillary vessels in 

 cholera. In Fig. 82, plate XXI, p. 184, some capil- 

 laries are shown stretched to three or four times their 

 ordinary diameter, and yet there is no evidence of 

 actual rupture having occurred. It appears probable, 

 however, that in many instances the distension is suc- 

 ceeded by the giving way of the capillary walls, when 

 haemorrhage takes place into the surrounding tissues. 

 This appears to have occurred in the specimen from 

 which Fig. 88, plate XXII, p. 186, is taken. In vari- 

 ous parts well-defined crystals of hsematoidin were 

 observed, as well as numerous oil-globules which have 

 resulted from changes having taken place in matters 

 which have extravasated from the blood. The tube 

 of the capillary vessel may be traced up to a point 

 indicated by the letter b, but beyond this the only 

 indications which remain of its further course are a 

 few irregular lines. This vessel was pervious, and 

 was injected with fine Prussian blue fluid as far as the 



P 



