188 THE FLUIDS. 



of pus and not inflammation itself, nor necessarily dependent on 

 inflammation in any sense. The corpuscles first formed are some- 

 times called "exudation-corpuscles," as if peculiar to exudations. 

 They are, however, merely the cytoid corpuscles already described 

 (p. 145), and are developed in accordance with a law stated on 

 page 146. That they are also here histologically (though not phy- 

 siologically) identical with pus-corpuscles, will be shown under the 

 characteristics of pus. 



Whether an inflammatory exudation is to become organized into 

 fibres and tissues, or into corpuscles (pus) merely, depends mainly 

 upon three circumstances (Paget): 



1. The condition of the blood, and therefore the composition of the 

 exudation itself. Hence empyema is more common as a result of 

 pleuritis in scrofulous and other debilitated subjects, and adhesions 

 in the more robust, (p. 94.) 



2. The seat of the inflammation. If this be on serous membranes 

 (as the pleura), fibrillation and false membrane are common ; if the 

 tissue of the lung itself is attacked (pneumonitis), the exudation first 

 coagulates (forming the red hepatization, as it is improperly called), 

 and is then converted into pus, which, by an equal misnomer, is 

 termed the "gray hepatization." In true croup, the exudation first 

 fibrillates, and subsequently, if sufficient time is given, is developed 

 into pus, the fibres being previously dissolved. Hence, in an abscess 

 containing pus, fibres are also frequently found intermixed, espe- 

 cially in the portions of pus first formed. 



3. The intensity of the inflammatory process affects the organization 

 of the exudation by modifying its plasticity. The more intense the 

 former, the more liable is the latter to be developed into pus. 



While the organization of exudations into tissues is an ascending 

 metamorphosis of the former, their conversion into pus must be re- 

 garded as an abortive attempt at the same. The pus-corpuscle is, 

 histologically, identical with the exudation-corpuscle, and not a de- 

 generation of the latter, as has been asserted. It is merely an arrest, 

 of development of the exudation-corpuscle. Exudation-corpuscles nor- 

 mally form cell- walls around them, and then develop the higher 

 tissues; and hence the exudation (cytoid) corpuscles become, in fact, 

 the nuclei of exudation-cells, of which less notice has been taken. 

 Hence Gluge regards pus-corpuscles as nuclei, " because in granu- 

 lations and the formation of cicatrices it is readily and directly 

 conclusive that cells form upon pus-corpuscles; for the nuclei of 

 young cicatrix-cells, in appearance and chemical relations, are per- 

 fectly identical with the latter." 1 We would say, exudation-ce?/s 

 form upon exudation-corpuscles, the latter being the nuclei of the 

 former; while the pus-corpuscles are merely the exudation-cor- 

 puscles, arrested in their development, and destined not to rise to 



1 Pathological Histology, p. 45. 



