OF THE SEROUS MEMBRANES IN GENERAL. 155 



whitish lactescent fluid, or containing albuminous and fibrin- 

 ous flakes; sometimes, though rarely, the serum is bloody; 

 finally, pus is to be found in it, having all the properties of 

 that produced in the cellular tissue. Besides these effects of 

 inflammation, there are others which are very remarkable. 



197. The false membranes, the pseudo membranae, are 

 not peculiar to the serous membranes, but are frequently found 

 there. They consist in the concretion, under the form of a 

 membrane, of the product of the secretion of the membrane, 

 inflamed to a certain extent. This product, similar to the or- 

 ganizable matter which determines the adhesion of the lips of 

 wounds, is at first thrown in separate drops on the free surface 

 of the membrane; these drops, by their multiplication and 

 extension, generally meet, forming first a net-work, then an 

 entire surface. Most commonly the same thing takes place 

 on the opposite side of the membrane and the latter generally 

 remaining in contact with the former, the false membrane oc- 

 casions the agglutination of the two parts, previously contigu- 

 ous : this is the first degree of adhesion, the gelatinous adhe- 

 sion of some, and the plastic adhesion, adherence couenneuse 

 of others; I prefer calling it agglutination. At one time the 

 agglutinating matter merely forms a thin layer interposed be- 

 tween the approximated surfaces, at another, it is so abundant, 

 that it fills and distends the serous cavity. 



Organic adhesions of the serous membranes, are a frequent 

 result of the formation of false membranes. The organizable 

 matter of the agglutination, is converted into cellular tissue, 

 in which are formed ramifying canals, which gradually acquire 

 the vascular structure, (chap, iv.) and which end by commu- 

 nicating with the vessels of the inflamed membrane. Several 

 of the first observers, who saw the vessels of the adhesions, 

 mistook them for vascular villosities, prolonged from the old 

 membrane into the matter of the false one. J. Hunter and 

 M. Ev. Home, have observed the contrary, a fact, the truth 

 of which I have several times proved. By pricking, at ran- 

 dom, a recent adhesion with a tube filled with mercury, we 

 can inject the ramifying canals, whose largest part or trunk, 

 corresponds with the centre of the adhesion, and whose branches 



