DISCHARGE OF COLLOIDAL MATERIAL 269 



fluid and character of circulatory media the pathological 

 result, in the one case, being a condition of pseudo- 

 hypertrophy or haemorrhoids, and in the other, pseudo- 

 atrophy or fissure of the anus. 



In the normal condition of the "complexus" of circu- 

 lations in the recto-anal textural economy, the circulatory 

 machineries dovetail and harmonise in their working in 

 such a perfect way that not the slightest discomfort is 

 experienced, but, if the slightest departure from that 

 normal condition obtains a " footing," then a long list of 

 possible -pathological conditions begins to unfold itself, 

 the various factors in which become determined, primarily, 

 by the relative degrees in which three or, it may be, four 

 definite circulations of the parts affected become involved, 

 viz. the alvine, the cerebro-spinal lymph, sometimes, it 

 may be, the systemic lymph and the blood circulation 

 proper ; and, secondarily, the manner in which their 

 mutual disturbances work out the final pathological results. 

 We may take it, under the circumstances here enumerated, 

 that the condition of colloid, as applied to the consistency 

 of excretion, can only pertain to the cerebro-spinal lymph, 

 and can, therefore, only effect the production of a patho- 

 logical condition through its action on the principle of 

 circulation, and the consequent stasis of the excretory flow 

 from increasing consistency of that lymph, and the engorge- 

 ment of the cerebro-spinal lymph excretory vasculature. 

 L T nder ordinary or normal circumstances the excretion of 

 the cerebro-spinal lymph from the coccygeal gland and 

 excretionary vasculature is effected by the combined 

 influence of proper gland contracture, the subsidiary local 

 or external muscular compression of the gland, and the 

 involved mechanical emptying of its excretory vasculature 

 in its course through the peri-anal structures by the 

 queezing or compression exercised by the intra-mural 

 bowel structures on the passing faecal materials through 

 ordinary peristalsis, and the associated action of the 

 abdominal musculature ; but, when an unusual viscosity 

 or hyper-colloidal condition of that fluid ensues from any 

 cause so as to impede its excretion, the result is a stasis, 

 with ballooning of the excretory vasculature, in the distal 

 bowel border immediately beyond the sphere of influence 



