222 LECTURE IX. 



comes infected with the constituents of pus ; on the con- 

 trary a retention of the pus-corpuscles will probably take 

 place within the glands, and even the fluids which suc- 

 ceed in passing them, will during that passage lose a 

 great part of their noxious properties. Secondary glan- 

 dular swellings show themselves in various forms after 

 peripheral infection. How can they be explained other- 

 wise than upon the supposition, that every contaminat- 

 ing (miasmatic) substance, which is to be regarded as 

 essentially foreign or, if I may so express myself, hostile, 

 to the body, by penetrating into the substance of the 

 gland, produces in it a state of more or less marked irri- 

 tation which very frequently increases to a real inflam- 

 mation of the gland ? I shall hereafter revert to the sub- 

 ject of irritation and enter a little more fully into the con- 

 sideration of the meaning which should be attached to it, 

 and I will therefore here only make this remark, that 

 according to my investigations the irritation of a gland 

 consists in its falling into a state in which there is an 

 increased formation of cells in it its follicles becoming 

 enlarged, and after a time exhibiting a much greater 

 number of cells than before. In proportion to the extent 

 of these processes we then see the colourless elements of 

 the blood also increase. Every considerable irritation of 

 a gland is followed by an increase in the proportion of 

 lymph-corpuscles in the blood, and every process there- 

 fore which is accompanied by glandular irritation, will 

 also have the effect of supplying the blood with larger 

 quantities of colourless blood-corpuscles, or, in other 

 words, of producing a leucocytotic condition. If then the 

 opinion be entertained that pus has been absorbed, and 

 that pus is the cause of the disturbances which have de- 

 clared themselves, nothing is easier than to demonstrate 

 the presence of cells in the blood which have the appear- 

 ance of pus-corpuscles and are often present in such large 



