154 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



sorption being diminished or the exhalation being increased: 

 this accumulation produces various dropsies. The liquids 

 formed in the latter, presents various qualities, particularly if 

 there is inflammation. This fluid sometimes contains more 

 animal matter than is found in a state of health, at others 

 less: sometimes the proportion of this matter is the same as 

 in that state. Generally speaking, the serosity of dropsies 

 resembles the serum of the blood, except in having a less pro- 

 portion of albumen. There is one point of pathological ana- 

 tomy to which sufficient attention has not been paid; that is 

 the dropsies which do not appear to depend upon an altera- 

 tion of the serous membranes or of the organs of respiration 

 and circulation, and which for this reason have been regarded 

 as general affections, are often preceded and accompanied by 

 a flow of urine containing a great proportion of gelatine and 

 albumen, a substraction of animal matters which alter the 

 composition of the blood, which renders it more watery and 

 which is owing to an alteration of the kidney and its function. 

 This flux sometimes also accompanies dropsies with a local 

 affection of another viscus. * 



196. Inflammation of the serous membranes, which is 

 a very frequent occurrence, produces in these membranes, 

 changes in their tissue and in their secretions. The membrane 

 becomes vascular at first in its external cellular tissue, and 

 after a while in its own thickness; its vascular fringes and 

 villosities are better marked, and finally become more promi- 

 nent and very thick. If the inflammation continues for a cer- 

 tain time, the membrane becomes thickened and loses its 

 transparency; this thickening, however, which appears very 

 great, is generally in appearance only and is foreign to the 

 membrane itself. Besides the interstitial arrangement which 

 gives rise to this alteration, a secretion takes place in the ca- 

 vity of the membrane itself; the secretion however, is at first 

 suspended, afterwards to be renewed with a change of charac- 

 ter. The liquid poured out, is, as the case may be, either a 

 simple and abundant serum, but not materially altered, or a 



* See T. Blackall, Observations on Dropsies, etc. London, 1813. 



