PHENOMENA. 



13 



Virchow is also of opinion that there is no inflammatory exuda- 

 tion at all, in the sense in. which it has usually been assumed to 

 exist, but that the exudation is essentially composed of the 

 material which has been generated in the inflamed tissue itself, 

 through the change in its condition, and of the transuded fluid 

 derived from the vessels. If a part possesses a great number of 

 vessels, particularly if they are superficial, it will be able to 

 furnish an exudation. If this is not the case, there will be no 

 exudation, but the whole process will be limited to the occur- 

 rence in the real substance of the tissue of the special changes 

 which have been induced by the inflammatory stimulus ; and 

 he concludes by stating that every parenchymatous inflamma- 

 tion has, from its outset, a tendency to alter the histological 

 and functional character of an organ. Every inflammation witli 

 free exudation in general affords a certain degree of relief to the 

 part ; it conveys away from it a great mass of the noxious matters 

 with which it is clogged, and the part therefore appears com- 

 paratively to suffer much less than that which is the seat of a 

 parenchymatous disease. 



Of the former (the parenchymatous) he gives an example in 



Fig. 3. — Parenchymatous Keratitis. At A the cornea corpuscles are seen iu a 

 nearly normal condition, at B enlarged, at C and D still more enlarged, and at 

 the same time clouded. 350 diameters. — (Virchow.) 



inflammation of the cornea ; and of the latter form of inflam- 

 mation we have an example as it occurs in mucous membranes, 



