198 ON THE PATHOLOGICAL MORPHOLOGY OF SOME FLUIDS. 



lucid fluid. This vesicle, on account of the place which it occupies, 

 may be called the central vesicle. In every globule there appear little 

 points or very small globules, scarcely larger than one-sixth the diame- 

 ter of the blood- discs, transparent or diaphanous, called molecules, and 

 dispersed without order. 



The quantity of these globules, and their magnitude, vary. We 

 shall speak in another and more appropriate place concerning these. 



When the globules have been dried, they change their round form 

 into that of an irregular polyhedron, marked with more pellucid mar- 

 gins ; in the middle there remains a granular yellowish substance, 

 which surrounds a central vesicle, at first turgid, but by drying becomes 

 changed into a white pellucid spot. Plate 7, fig. 5, 6. 



Sometimes two central vesicles are seen. Plate 7, fig. 6, d. 



Of Mucus produced by a more intense Inflammation of Mucous 

 Membranes. 



Mucus secreted from mucous membranes affected with a more intense 

 inflammation, is of a deep yellow colour, easily drawn out into threads 

 without any order. It is opaque, and when dried, leaves a yellow, 

 transparent, brittle substance ; in distilled or river- water it sinks to the 

 bottom, and forms flocculi : agitated with water it renders it turbid, but 

 1 saw the flocculi themselves, of a white colour, sink to the bottom. 

 The flocculi, washed a long time in water, did not render it more tur- 

 bid ; those made of a lighter colour swam upon the water, and enclosed 

 even then a few globules. The mucus, when dried, burnt with a flame. 

 The mucus from opthalmo-blennorrhcea, acute urethral blennorrhcea, 

 acute vaginal blennorrhcea in a puerperal woman is here alluded to. 



Investigated by the microscope this mucus consists : 



1. Of a small quantity of a whitish amorphous mass, not soluble in 

 water. 



2. Of innumerable yellow globules, partly with, partly without cen- 

 tral vesicles. Plate 7, figs. 710, 12,* 14, 22, 23, 25. These glo- 

 bules, exposed for a long time to distilled water, swelled and became 

 whitish. After the first minute they are broken, and the contained 

 molecules are sometimes quickly, at other times slowly expelled, then 

 sometimes leaped out, as if they were controlled by a physical law. 

 They did not accumulate about the unchanged central vesicle, but every- 

 where exercised, for a long time, a molecular motion. 



3. Cells of epithelium were rarely observed in this mucus; and if 

 any occurred, they were round, full, and here and there with difficulty 

 distinguished from the globules of mucus. Plate 7, figs. 14, 15. 



