46 ORGANISED FLUIDS. 



it appears that the renovation of these tissues and secretions 

 from the blood does not take place by the cells discharging 

 their contents into the general mass of the circulating current, 

 to be separated therefrom by some peculiar transcendental 

 and purely hypothetical selective process of exudation, 

 through a structureless and transparent tissue, but by being 

 themselves attached to, incorporated with, and performing 

 their special function in the structure." 



Thus Mr. Addison conceives that the fibrillating liquor 

 sanguinis is formed and elaborated in the white corpuscles of 

 the blood, and that it never exists in that fluid in a free state, 

 and that its presence in the crassamentum, and especially in 

 that part of it which constitutes the buffy coat, arises from 

 the rupture and destruction of the white corpuscles and the 

 escape of their contents. This opinion he supports by a 

 series of ingenious experiments, one of which may here be 

 referred to. The tenacious property belonging to mucus is 

 well known, in which respect, as well as in the smaller number 

 of globules, similar to the white corpuscles of the blood, con- 

 tained in it, it differs mainly from pus. Now, by the addition 

 of a drop of liquor potasses to a little pus, which was pre- 

 viously white and opaque, and in which the presence of a 

 considerable number of white corpuscles was ascertained by 

 means of the microscope, its appearance underwent a complete 

 change, the pus became transparent and tenacious, presenting 

 precisely the characters of mucus. The fluid being again 

 examined microscopically, it was found that most of the 

 globules were ruptured and dissolved, and that the liquid 

 portion of it fibrillated in the same way as that of mucus, 

 and that of the liquor sanguinis ; from this and other ana- 

 logous experiments Mr. Addison formed the conclusion, that 

 the fibrillating liquor sanguinis was derived from the white 

 corpuscles, and that it does not exist in the blood in a free 

 condition. 



According to Mr. Addison, the secretions, " milk, mucus, 

 and bile, are the visible fluid results of the final dissolution 

 of the cells." Hence, therefore, a secretion is the result of 

 the last stage of the process of nutrition. And, again, " If, 



