18 THE PROCESS OF ULCEBATION 



On one edge of the section is the cartilage unaltered, with 

 its corpuscules natural in position and size. On the oppo- 

 site edge, is the gelatinous, or false membrane, both consisting 

 essentially of nucleated particles, intermixed, especially in the 

 latter, with fibres and blood-vessels ; and, in the former, with 

 tubercular granular matter. In the immediate vicinity, and on 

 both sides of the irregular edge of the section of cartilage, where 

 it is connected to the membrane, certain remarkable appearances 

 are seen. These consist, on the side of the cartilage, of a change 

 in the shape and size of the cartilage corpuscules. Instead of 

 being of their usual form, they are larger, rounded, or oviform ; 

 and instead of two or three nucleated cells in their interior, con- 

 tain a mass of them. At the very edge of the ulcerated cartilage, 

 the cellular contents of the enlarged cartilage corpuscules com- 

 municate with the diseased membrane by openings more or less 

 extended. Some of the ovoidal masses in the enlarged corpus- 

 cules may be seen half released from then' cavities by the removal 

 of the cartilage ; and others of them may be observed in the sub- 

 stance of the false membrane, close to the cartilage, where they 

 have been left by the entire removal of the cartilage which ori- 

 ginally surrounded them. 



If a portion of the false membrane be gradually torn off the 

 cartilage, the latter will appear rough and honey-combed. Into 

 each depression on its surface a nipple-like projection of the false 

 membrane penetrates. The cavities of the enlarged corpuscules 

 of the cartilage, open on the ulcerated surface by orifices of a size 

 proportional to the extent of absorption of the walls of the cor- 

 puscule, and of the free surface of the cartilage. 



The texture of the cartilage does not exhibit, during the pro- 

 gress of the ulceration, any trace of vascularity. The false mem- 

 brane is vascular, and loops of capillary vessels dip into the sub- 

 stance of the nipple-like projections which fill the depressions oil 

 the ulcerated surface of the cartilage ;* but, with the exception of 

 the enlargement of the corpuscules, and the peculiar development 

 of their contents, no change has occurred in it. A layer of 



* The vascular loops described and figured by Mr. Listen, are not vessels in the car- 

 tila"-e, but the vessels described iu the text. LTSTOX. Lorn!. Med. Cl.-ir. Trans. 



