TUBERCLE COLLOID. 511 



appeared a proof of superior penetration to say, instead 

 of gelatinous tumour or gelatinous mass, colloid tumoui 

 or colloid mass. But you must not think that those, who 

 have these denominations the most constantly in their 

 mouths, intend to express anything else by them, than 

 what most others call simply a jelly-like tumour, or only 

 jelly. It is just the same with it, as, in the time of 

 Homer, with the herb MoUi>, which was so called in the 

 language of the gods, but by another name by men.* It 

 is, however, very advisable, that these really unmeaning 

 and only high-sounding expressions should not be unne- 

 cessarily diffused, and that the habit should be acquired 

 of conveying a precise meaning by every expression, and 

 that therefore from the moment one really aspires to 

 make histological divisions, one should no longer employ, 

 when speaking of every jelly-like tumour, the term col- 

 loid which has no histological value whatever, but merely 

 designates an external appearance which tissues of the 

 most different nature may under certain circumstances 

 present. Laennec himself inaugurated the somewhat 

 pernicious practice, by speaking of a colloid transforma- 

 tion of fibrinous exudations of the pleura. 



The chief difficulty, which here presents itself, consists 

 in this, that people do not know how to discover any 

 difference between the mere form and the true nature. 

 The form ought only to be admitted as a decisive crite- 

 rion for the diagnosis of new-formations, when it is con- 

 joined with a real difference in ' the tissue, and does not 

 result from accidental peculiarities of situation or posi- 

 tion. If, for example, you wish to make use of the name 

 coUoid, you can do so in two ways. You can either 

 employ it to designate nothing more than a kind of 

 appearance, and then you will certainly be able to find 



* Odyss. X. 305. Note of the Stenograph. 



