126 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



as before. This sort of fragility which the cellular tissue ac- 

 quires, explains certain phenomena; it explains why the liga- 

 ture of a vessel frequently produces a section of the surround- 

 ing tissue, why at the termination of peritonitis, it is so easy 

 to separate the intestine from the coat formed by the perito- 

 neum. Inflammation of the cellular tissue may terminate 

 insensibly, and then this tissue gradually reassumes all its pro- 

 perties: this is seen in that kind of termination called, by re- 

 solution. In other cases the cellular tissue secretes a peculiar 

 liquid called pus, and which will be described hereafter this 

 constitutes the termination by suppuration. This liquid is 

 generally collected in one point which extends itself progres- 

 sively to the circumference, as long as the secretion continues. 

 This is one of the perspiratory kind of secretions; pus is pro- 

 duced directly from the blood and even presents in its com- 

 position some analogy with this fluid. It only requires the 

 disease to progress slowly, for the walls of the abscess to be- 

 come lined with a membrane. This membrane is doubled 

 externally by a layer, more or less thick, of compact cellular 

 tissue. This layer is not so well marked when the disease has 

 lasted a certain time, and the membrane is then almost com- 

 pletely isolated, the cellular tissue having reacquired its pro- 

 perties around it. Abscesses are the seats of a continual 

 secretion and absorption; the entire absorption of the pus 

 they contain, and the effects which the presence of this fluid 

 sometimes produces in the economy are proofs of it. The pus 

 formed in the interior of abscesses most commonly arrives at 

 last at the surface. The abscess is emptied, its walls are con- 

 tracted, remain indurated for some time, and end by reassuming 

 all the characters of cellular tissue. When the secretion and 

 flow of pus continue, the canal by which the abscess commu- 

 nicates without, and which is called sinus or fistula, becomes 

 invested with a distinct membrane, that presents the charac- 

 ters of the mucous membranes, and whose history belongs to 

 that of the latter. After certain gangrenous inflammations 

 the cellular tissue becomes so tightened by the loss of sub- 

 stance it has undergone, that the skin, the muscles, and the 

 aponeuroses become confounded: but in this case, if the pa- 



