PUS. 137 



AUT. IV. PUS. 



GENERAL CHARACTERS. 



HEALTHY, phlegmonous, or laudable pus, is a fluid of the 

 colour and consistence of cream, readily miscible with water, 

 in which after a time it sinks ; it does not admit of being 

 drawn out into threads, and exhibits usually an alkaline, 

 though sometimes an acid, re-action. 



Like mucus, which it resembles so closely, pus is made up 

 of two constituents, the one fluid, the other solid ; these, if 

 allowed to stand at rest for a time, will undergo a spontaneous 

 separation from each other, the corpuscles subsiding to the 

 bottom, and the fluid or serum floating upon the top; this 

 also will be frequently observed to be covered with a delicate 

 film composed of oil globules. The fluid portion of pus, as 

 of mucus, is probably the only essential, as it certainly is 

 its only distinctive constituent : but while the latter is some- 

 times free from globules, the former is never without a 

 greater or less amount of corpuscles, on the presence and 

 numbers of which its opacity, its colour, and its consistence 

 mainly depend. 



The general characters of pus, however, undergo many 

 changes in disease ; thus its consistence, colour, smell, and 

 all other sensible qualities vary greatly in pathological con- 

 ditions. 



IDENTITY OF THE PUS AND MUCOUS CORPUSCLE. 



The globules of pus resemble in all essential particulars 

 those of true mucus, the characters of which have been 

 already described; thus, they present the same form, the 

 same constitution, and they comport themselves in a manner 

 almost identical with chemical re-agents. (See Plate XI. 

 fig. 1., and Plate XIII. fig. 1.) 



In one respect only can a difference in the effect of re- 

 agents on the pus and mucous corpuscles be detected ; this 



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