227 



XXXIV. MICROSCOPICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PATHOLOGICAL MOR- 

 PHOLOGY OF SOME OF THE ANIMAL FLUIDS, BY DAVID GRUBY, M.D. 



No 2. 



Translated from the Latin by 8. J. Goodfellow, M.D., #e. 

 [Continued from page 206.] 



OF PUS. 



I HAVE considered the following questions concerning pus, which 

 are sufficiently trite, indeed, but as yet have not been performed 

 with the penetrating examination which the difficulty of the subject 

 required, in order to ascertain : 



1 . What is understood by the name of pus ? 



2. If a material difference can be shown between pus from a wound 

 (pathological organ), and pus from the surface of an organ whose con- 

 tinuity is uninjured ? 



3. Whether a material difference is to be observed between pus and 

 mucus ? 



4. If the product from the commencement of suppuration to the ter- 

 mination of the process be always the same ? 



5. What material changes are observed between pus produced from a 

 normal process of suppuration, and that produced from an anomalous 

 process. 



Pus secreted by an abscess is a yellow fluid, of an agreeable animal 

 odour, of the consistence of cream ; that from the process of inflamma- 

 tion or irritation is composed of globules three or four times larger than 

 those of the blood, and a fluid. Allowed to rest, a double stratum is 

 perceived, the upper one being very fluid, the lower thicker. 



The inferior stratum, submitted to the microscope, is perceived to be 

 endowed with yellowish-white, and perfectly smooth globules, joined 

 together by a viscid fluid. The globules exceed in size three or four 

 times those of the blood ; most of them are round, some are oblong, 

 others wedge-shaped. They consist of a transparent envelope, with 

 usually one, sometimes two, but seldom with no vesicle enclosed in 

 them ; the diameter of the central vesicle scarcely exceeds that of the 

 blood- discs, the remaining space is filled by the small and large primi- 

 tive molecules. Plate 6, fig. 97.* 



* Gerber thinks that pus-globules secreted from wounds, are nothing more than 

 exudation-globules, which lie beyond the vivifying influence of the surface of the 



Q 2 



