LlPUS. 



301) 



First, as to structure. Every lupoid tubercle, whether it be 

 situated in the cutis or in the subcutaneous connective tissue, 

 presents a well-marked acinous composition. This is easily 

 proved by examining sections of a piece of skin infiltrated with 

 lupus, after it has been hardened in alcohol, steeped for eighteen 

 hours in a strong solution of carmine, and finally cleared up with 

 appropriate agents, among which Canada balsam is the best. In 

 the smaller tubercles we distinguish from two to three, in the 

 larger ones — those abotit the size of a hemp -seed — from seven 

 to ten roundly-oval, tortuous bodies, everywhere studded with 

 roundish projections ; these bodies arc bulbous at one end, 

 tapering off at the other to converge towards a common centre 

 (fig. 120, a). These bodies are made tip of cells of considerable 

 size, whose protoplasm has resisted the carmine, and whicli 

 accordingly appear white, in marked contrast to the remaining 

 parenchyma of the nodule in which they are embedded. This 

 residual parenchyma (fig. 120, h) consists entirely of true em- 



FiG. 120. 



Lupus. Vertical section, showing tlie passage of the health j 

 skin into that which is most infiltrated, a. Acinous nodules ; 

 h. Embryonic tissue of the lupus-nodule ; c. Altered hair- 

 sacs and sebaceous glands. -^. 



bryonic tissue ; the cells are small, perfectly round, lustrous and 

 readily tinted by carmine. Here too the vessels of the lupoid 

 nodtde, as described by some authors, ramify : they form a net- 

 work round the bulbous ends referred to above, towards wln'ch 

 they stand in the same relation as that taken up by the vessels 

 towards the terminal follicles of an acinous gland, thus confirm- 

 ing my view of the acinous structure of the lupoid nodule, 



^ § 344. We have next to ascertain the cause of these highly 

 characteristic appearances ; the notion that tlie acinous composi- 



