344 OF THE GROWTH OF BIOPLASM 



III. Growth of Bioplasm. 



This, as will have been inferred from the remarks 

 under the last heading, is a very serious change, very 

 characteristic of the febrile and inflammatory state, 

 and it is that which most frequently leads to a fatal 

 result, and even when recovery takes place, the increase 

 of the bioplasm may occasion impaired health or 

 chronic disease. The change was referred to in my 

 " Report on the Cattle Plague," published in 1866, and 

 before that time had been fully described in my 

 lectures at King's College. The alterations are most 

 remarkable, and have been figured in numerous illus- 

 trations (see plate XXVI I L, p. 218). It is this process 

 of undue growth of bioplasm, which from the first we 

 must endeavour to control by treatment. We must try 

 to establish those conditions from the first which we 

 know to be unfavourable to this process. Although it 

 is some years since I pointed out this most important 

 fact, and laid great stress upon the increase of bioplasm 

 in all fevers and inflammations, it has not yet attracted 

 much attention. The phenomenon has been discussed 

 by me in several memoirs, and is treated of in the 

 second part of this work (p. 218). In this place I 

 propose to consider the matter mainly in its practical 

 bearing. Not only shall I be able to show that the 

 increase of bioplasm affords a highly important indi- 

 cation for treatment, but that many different remedies 

 which experience has proved to be of use in febrile 



