INFLAMMATION. 323 



to take place as readily as that into connective tissue. The 

 neutral cells which are present are pus-corpuscles from the 

 moment when they are suspended in a serous fluid and proceed 

 to divide and multiply therein. 



Their development into '^ specific pus-corpuscles," i.e. into 

 young cells with several nuclei, is in no respect essential ; though 

 it may nevertheless be frequently observed. The transition pre- 

 sents itself to the naked eye as a yellowish- white discoloration and 

 liquefaction of the reddish membranes and shreds, beginning at 

 their edges, and terminating in their rather sudden dissolution 

 into a puriform fluid. I have succeeded in demonstrating this 

 more than once in peritoneal inflammations excited artificially ; 

 at the same time however, 1 noticed that the stage of '' recent 

 agglutination " in primarily suppurative inflammations was 

 generally of very brief duration, passing very speedily into the 

 essential phenomenon of suppurative inflammation, so. purulent 

 exudation. 



The case is primarily one of ^'exudation" in the strictest 

 sense of the word. Vast numbers of leucocytes migrate from the 

 dilated blood-vessels ; they first of all infiltrate the connective 

 tissue, and then — -as I am forced provisionally to assume in order 

 to account for the occasionally enormous quantity of pus — undergo 

 proliferation. As may be seen in fig. 106, which represents 

 a vertical section through the serous investment of the uterus, 

 all the interstices between the thicker fibrous strata are literally 

 crammed with cells. The great variety of flask-shaped and 

 analogous forms indicates moreover that these cells are ]iot quies- 

 cent, but are undergoing amoeboid movements. The direction 

 in which these movements tend is hardly open to question ; it is 

 clearly upwards and outwards. One may figure to oneself how, 

 through the membrane which is so abundantly infiltrated, a 

 mighty stream of exuded liquor sanguinis is passing. This also 

 will tend to make its way through the interstices between the 

 fibres, and will consequently carry with it numbers of the corpus- 

 •cular elements vdiich they contain ; these cells it will afterwards 

 hold in suspension as pus-corpuscles, when it comes to rest in 

 the serous cavity. In this manner does the exudation become 

 purulent on its way from the blood-vessels to the free surface of 

 the serous membrane ; this is the rationale of purulent exu- 

 dation. 



