REABSORPTION OF PUS. 213 



absorption of pus, from that which was considered to be 

 pathological, and the only question that remained was, 

 in what way the first process with its favourable and the 

 second with its malignant issue could be accounted for. 

 This matter finds its simple solution in the fact that pus 

 as pus is never reabsorbed. There is no form, by which 

 pus in substance can disappear by the way of reabsorp- 

 tion ; it is always the fluid part of the pus which is taken 

 up, and therefore what is called the reabsorption of pus 

 may be referred to the two following possibilities. 



In the first case, the pus with its corpuscles is at the 

 time of the reabsorption still more or less intact. Then 

 the pus becomes of course thicker in proportion as the 

 fluid disappears. This constitutes the long known thick- 

 ening (inspissation) of pus, whereby is produced what the 

 French term " pus concret," which consists of a thick 

 mass, containing the pus-corpuscles in a shrivelled con- 

 dition, when not only the fluid between the pus-corpus- 

 cles (pus-serum) but a part also of that present in them 

 has disappeared. 



FIG. 63. 



Ox I 



Fig. 63. A. Pus-corpuscles, a fresh, b after the addition of a little water, c 

 after treatment with acetic acid, the contents cleared up, the nuclei which were in 

 process of division, or already divided, visible, at e with a slight depression on 

 their surface. B, Nuclei of pus- corpuscles in gonorrhoea ; a simple nucleus with 

 nucleoli, b incipient division, with depressions* on the surface of the nuclei, c pro- 

 gressive bi-partition, d tri-partition. C. Pus-corpuscles in their natural position 

 with regard to one another. 600 diameters. 



* By many held to be nucleoli. 



