218 MOUBID STATES OF THE BLOOD, ETC. 



from the afterent lym})hatics, and bj direct puncture. An exa- 

 mination of thin sections which have been pencilled out shows 

 nothing which might not occur in a normal gland ; fine-meshed 

 reticulum made up of thin, lustrous threads, permeated by 

 capillaries and occupied by lymph-corpuscles. We notice only 

 that the cortical nodules (Eindenknoten) and the medullary 

 cords (Markstrange) are far broader, and the capsules and septa ' 

 of connective tissue far thicker than they usually are. W. 

 Midler asserts that in liy])erplastic enlargements of the lymphatic 

 glands the delicate network of connective-tissue corpuscles which 

 permeates the lymphatic sinuses of the cortex and the lymph- 

 paths of the medullary substance, shows itself to be the essential 

 histioplastic element, inasmuch as new layers of medullary sub- 

 stance, in addition to those already present, are more particularly 

 developed in its neighbourhood. I believe that this is principally 

 true of leukhgemic overgrowths. (See below.) 



§ 182. The pathological histology of leukhasmia is not ex- 

 hausted with the consideration of these hyperplastic conditions 

 of the spleen and lymphatic glands. The implication of other 

 organs suggests that we ought rather to view those phenomena 

 merely as the expression of a general tendency to the develop- 

 ment of new lymphadenoid tissue. The presence of a certain 

 quantity of unformed connective tissue seems in fact to be the 

 only condition needful for the occurrence of the characteristic 

 alterations. The cells proliferate, and form circumscribed deposits 

 of variable size, which are white to the naked eye, and which 

 can only be distinguished from small collections of pus by the 

 circumstance that the cells are embedded in a network of delicate 

 fibres of stiffened protoplasm, which leaves enough space round 

 the cells for the transit of nutrient fluid. It need hardly be said 

 however, that this very reticulum in which the cells are embedded, 

 and which distinguishes the leukhpcmic product from a collection 

 of pus, assimilates it to the lymphatic glands, raises it to the level 

 of lymphadenoid tissue. (Cf leukhasmic swelling of the liver, 

 kidneys and serous membranes in the corresponding chapters of 

 the Special Part of this work.) 



3. Melancemia. 

 ^ 183. In the melan^mic dyscrasia, certain pigmentary par^ 



