312 



SEROUS MEMBKANES. 



fibriii; like fibrin generallj, is a product of the activity of the tissues 

 themselves — that it is autochthonous — originating therefore, in 

 the present instance, in the parenchyma of the serous membrane 

 itself. I cannot agree to this. On examining the surface of 

 the inflamed membrane by reflected light, a keen eye may here 

 and there detect little punctiform elevations, closely set — minute 

 buttons of a transparent substance. If the serous membrane is 

 carefully peeled off and examined with a low power (fig. 100) 

 v/e perceive at the first glance that the position of these nodules 

 is everywhere determined by the course of the vessels. They 

 form rounded masses of an amorphous and homogeneous material 

 which looks as if it had oozed out of the capillaries and arterioles 

 (Uebergangsgeftisse) at various points, like rosin from a fir- 

 tree. I regard this appearance as very suggestive. I believe 

 that it enables us to ascertain the immediate source of the 

 exudation-fibrin, which is in fact identical with the fibrin of the 

 blood. 



The form exhibited by the coagulated fibrin under the micro- 

 scope is not always the usual one of a delicate reticulum of 



Fig. 100. 



2:^. 



Inflamed peritoneum. Hypersemia and exudation. (Mch.) ■^. 



felted threads, such as exists in ordinary coagula ; the mass is 

 often less fissured, and consists of broad, wavy fibres, differing 

 from areolar connective tissue only in the absence of any regular 

 arrangement of those fibres. On the whole, it is as easy to dis- 



