258 SEROUS SYSTEM, 



Q. Is serum an excrementitious fluid? 



*#. Entirely the reverse; it is recrementitious. 



Q. What is the form of each serous membrane? 



#. That of a sac without an opening; like a double 

 night-cap folded within itself. 



Q. Into how many parts can a serous membrane be 

 divided? 



/?. Remembering that it is continuous, it may be di- 

 vided into the membrane that lines the inner surface of a 

 cavity, and that which invests the outer surface of the or- 

 gans contained in that cavity. Take for illustration the 

 costal pleura and the pulmonary pleura. 



Q. What do you understand by the free and adherent 

 surfaces of the serous membranes? 



t/2. The adherent surface covers the organs; the free 

 surface the interior of the sac. 



Q. What is Bichat's doctrine of organic life? 



Jl. That each organ has its peculiar life, resulting from 

 a particular modification of its vital forces; this modifica- 

 tion establishing one in the circulation, nutrition.and tem- 

 perature of each organ. 



Q. Is any influence on these separate lives produced by 

 the serous investitures? 



Jl. The serous membranes so insulate the organs as to 

 favour the theory and operation of separate lives. 



Q. What influence have the serous investments on the 

 spread of diseased action from one organ to another? 



Jl. They are unfavourable to such extension of morbid 

 action. 



Q. In what pathological point do the serous and mucous 

 tissues conspicuously differ? 



#. In their respective dispositions to form adhesions 



