INTERSTITIAL INFLAMMATION. 113 



accumulation of cells, the ofteuer is this process of fission likelv 

 to be repeated, but the greater also will be the difficulty of 

 tracing it under the microscope. And this perhaps is the reason 

 why it has hitherto been often assumed to take place, but never 

 distinctly demonstrated. 



Our knowledge with regard to the som'ce of the embryonic 

 cells in inflammation is obviously in a transition state. But if 

 we reflect that the doctrines advanced in the preceding section 

 constitute the o-roundwork of all the remainino; histoWical 

 effects due to the " intermediate apparatus of nutrition," we 

 shall perceive the immense importance to our scientific super- 

 structure of every forward step in this department of inquiry. 



§ 91. Continuing for a moment our consideration of the 

 inflammatory exudation as a fait accompli^ we must notice the 

 remarkable influence exercised on the connective-tissue fibres by 

 the cells to which they afford a refuge. Billroth has made some 

 statements on this point which I think worthy of great attention. 

 The fibres are not merely pushed asunder, but they undergo [i 

 certain degree of softening and fusion, so that instead of the 

 tough web of which the cutis, even in its most delicate portions, 

 is made up {e.g, in the prepuce), we find a delicate network 

 which simulates the aspect of newly-developed intercellular sub- 

 stance (fig. 37), for which indeed it has often been mistaken. 



Fig. 37. 



Tissue of cutis rarefied by inflammatory infiltration : after 

 Billroth, ^i^. 



Passing to the further histological metamorphosis of the 

 plastic exudation, upon which, as already stated, the ultimate 



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