236 LECTURE X. 



I 



cles disappear before your eyes while the colourless ones 

 remain behind. 



That therefore, which according to the ordinary nomen- 

 clature is called suppurative phlebitis, is neither suppu- 

 rative, nor yet phlebitis, but a process which begins with 

 a coagulation, with the formation of a thrombus in the 

 blood, and afterwards presents a stage in which the 

 thrombi soften, so that the whole history of the process 

 is contained in the history of the thrombus. But here I 

 must impress upon you that I do not, as has been said of 

 me in different quarters, deny the possibility of a real 

 phlebitis, and that I have not in any way discovered that 

 there is no such thing as phlebitis. No f phlebitis cer- 

 tainly does exist. But it is an inflammation which really 

 affects the Walls, and not the contents of a vessel. In 

 the larger vessels the most different layers of their walls 

 may become inflamed and enter upon every possible 

 phase of inflammation, and yet all the while their chan- 

 nel remain entirely unaltered. In accordance with the 

 views generally entertained the internal coat of the ves- 

 sels was thought to be like a serous membrane, and as 

 this readily furnishes fibrinous exudations or purulent 

 masses, the same was supposed to be the case with the 

 internal coat. Concerning this point a series of investi- 

 gations was years ago set on foot, and I too have occu- 

 pied myself at various times with it, but hitherto no ex- 

 perimenter, who carefully prevented the blood from 

 streaming into the vessels, has succeeded in producing an 

 exudation, which was deposited in their cavity. On the 

 contrary, when the wall is inflamed, the "exuded mat- 

 ter" (Exsudatmasse) passes into the wall, which becomes 

 thicker, cloudy, and subsequently begins to suppurate. 

 Nay, even abscesses may form, which cause the wall to 

 bulge on both sides like a variolous pustule, without any 

 coagulation of the blood ensuing in the cavity of the ves- 



