250 MUCOUS SYSTEM 



Development of the Mucous System. 



Q. Is there any thing remarkable in the development 

 of the mucous surfaces at the various periods of life? 



*/2. It is highly important that the physician should re- 

 collect the following circumstances: the sudden impulse 

 given to the vital forces of this, tissue at birth, when the 

 meconium and urine stimulate to their discharge; that the 

 soft delicacy of the mucous tissues of the stomach, lungs, 

 and bowels, may render children so liable to cough, vo- 

 miting, and diarrhoea; that haemorrhages from this texture 

 in youth are very active; that the colour of the mucous 

 membrane is bright red till the thirtieth year; that this 

 colour varies greatly in redness, and that at particular 

 periods of life the gastro-pulmonary and genito-urinary 

 mucous tissues are in especial susceptibility to disease. 



Q. Why are contagious diseases less liable to be taken 

 at advanced periods of life? 



/#. Because the mucous membranes are less irritable, 

 and not so susceptible of disease as in youth. 



Q. What does Beclard consider as the structure of the 

 papillae or villi? 



#. That they are a net-work of vessels of the form of 

 leaflets, slightly curved round each other, but it is not 

 clearly shown whether they have orifices or not. 



Q. What is meant, according to Beclard, by the mu- 

 cous follicles? 



Jl. They are what have been improperly termed mu- 

 cous glands. Instead. of being glands, they are inversions 

 under the free surface of the membrane in which they are 

 formed ; they are folded, form a cul-de-sac, and end in an 



