324 SEROUS MEMBEA^ES. 



At an early period, while the corpuscular secretion is still 

 moderate in amount, the exudation is clear and deposits an 

 abundance of transparent, gelatinous flakes of fibrin ; at a later 

 stage, it consists of pure, greenish-yellow, thin pus. In examining 

 the bodies of patients who have succumbed to puerperal peritonitis 

 we often find the recent inflammatory agglutination in the upper 

 regions of the abdomen, in the neighbourhood of the stomach 

 and liver; lower down, about the kidneys and between the 

 mesenteric folds of the upper coils of the small intestine, we meet 



Fig. Il6. 







Suppurative inflammation of the serous coat of the uterus. 

 a. Serous membrane infiltrated with leucocytes; &. Surface 

 secreting pus-corpuscles ; c. Muscular coat. -5^. 



with a tolerably clear exudation containing flakes of fibrin : this, 

 towards the true j)elvis, exhibits streaks of pus which become 

 more and more numerous, till, in the pelvic cavity itself, the 

 fluid becomes entirely purulent. To the naked eye the serous 

 membrane appears hyper^emic ; but the red hue of the injected 

 vessels is toned down by a milky cloudiness which covers it as 

 with a veil. Tliis is due to the purulent infiltration of the mem- 

 brane itself 



§ 277. Side by side with the primary form of suj^pm-ative 

 inflammation, we may study those cases in wdiich a process, 



