232 INFLAMMATION 



TABLE II. 



Quantitative composition Plasma 

 of pus serutn. (normal). 



I II III 



Water 913.7 905.65 908.4 



Solids 86.3 94,35 91.6 



Proteids 63.23 77.21 77.6 



Lecithin 1.50 0.56 ^ 



Fat 0.26 0.29 [ 1.2 



Cholesterm 0.53 0.87 J 



Alcohol extractives 1.52 0.73 \ 



Water extractives 11.53 6.92 / 4 ' 



Inorganic salts 7.73 7.77 8.1 



Quantitatively the chief abnormal constituent of pus serum 

 is the so-called " pyin " of the older writers, which is nucleo- 

 proteid derived from the decomposing leucocytes, and hence 

 increasing in amount progressively with the age of the pus ; it 

 is characterized by its insolubility in acetic acid. The same 

 substance is found more abundantly in the entire pus, on 

 account of the presence of the cells, and when treated with 

 10 per cent. NaCl solution it forms a stringy mass which was 

 formerly called " Rovida's hyalin substance." In the pus serum 

 are found all the other constituents of the leucocytes, includ- 

 ing particularly lecithin, cholesterin, fats (and soaps), cerebrin, 

 " jecorin," and glycogen ; and also the usual components of the 

 blood-serum as well as some small quantities of pigment derived 

 from decomposed red corpuscles. 



The products of autolysis are of particular interest, and they 

 are found in varying amount, but usually less abundantly than 

 might be expected, probably because of their solubility and con- 

 sequent rapid absorption. Albumoses and peptone seem to be 

 constantly present (Shattock * ). The common occurrence of 

 albumosuria during suppuration presumably depends on the 

 absorption of digestion products from the pus, 2 but true peptone 

 has not been satisfactorily identified in the urine. Leucin and 

 tyrosin have also frequently been found in pus, but Taylor* 

 could find no workable traces of either monoammo- or polyamino- 

 acids in a liter of pus, which may depend on their having been 

 either absorbed or transformed into ammonium compounds. From 

 the nucleoproteids purin bodies are formed and may be found 

 in the pus. The relation of the purin bases to local leucocy- 

 tosis is shown by Heile, 4 who found in cold tuberculous abscesses 



1 Trans. London Path. Soc., 1892 (43), 225. 



2 Literature on albumosuria, see Yarrow, Amer. Med., 1903 (5), 452; 

 Elmer, ibid., 1906 (11), 169 ; Senator, International Clinics, 1905 (IV) series 14 r 

 p. 85. See also " Albumosuria," Chap. xix. 



3 Univ. of California Publications (PathoL), 1904 (1), 46. 4 Loc. cit. 



