CAPILLARY VESSELS IN INFLAMMATION. 335 



flammation whicli produce an influence upon the 

 nerve- fibres outside tlie capillary vessels in an indirect 

 manner. If tlie inflammatory change is not quickly 

 succeeded by a return to the normal state, partial or 

 complete paralysis of the little arteries results ; the 

 capillaries necessarily become distended, and their 

 walls so attenuated, that the passage of fluids through 

 them from the blood is very much facilitated. There 

 is increased exudation. Now the exudation that 

 escapes is not simply a clear fluid from which par- 

 ticles are deposited after the manner of crystals, and 

 aggregated so as to form " cells," but at the time it 

 is poured out there are suspended in it numerous 

 living particles. These particles are found in con- 

 siderable number, and are probably composed of 

 matter Hke that which enters iuto the composition of 

 the white-blood corpuscle. Moreover, the small par- 

 ticles detached from the white-blood corpuscles make 

 their way through the capillary walls, and divide, 

 and subdivide, and give rise in a short time to mul- 

 titudes of minute bioplasts which can only be dis- 

 tinguished by the aid of very high magnifying 

 powers. This was referred to in a paper which was 

 presented to the Microscopical Society, in 1868, and 

 published in the " Transactions." In many cases 

 where the capillary vessels are distended, living par- 

 ticles of bioplasm pass through. These being sur- 

 rounded with nutrient matter, grow, and divide, and 

 subdivide very freely, and in this way are produced 

 the multitudes of bioplasts commonly found imme- 

 diately surrounding the capillary vessels in the earlier 

 periods of inflammation of complex textures. Where- 

 ever fluid in which are suspended living particles 

 stagnates, the conditions are favourable for the 

 absorption by the hving bioplasts of an increased 

 quantity of nutrient material. Not only may this 

 increased absorption of nutrient material occur out- 

 side capillary vessels, but it may proceed in the sub- 



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