OBSERVATIONS AND EXPEftlKENTS ON PUS. » ] ]-7 



exhibited; and I do not comment on the different results of 

 experiment and conclusions of other writers, because future 

 observers only can determine the truth. What is and what 

 is not pus will now readilj' be acertained by a few easy ex- 

 periments; by the obvious properties; and by the considera- 

 tion of the source of the matter in question: provided, how- 

 ever, that it be unmixed with certain other matters, by which 

 disguise is produced. As already observed it is in pulmonic 

 <liseases that the ambiguity occurs; and physicians lay very 

 considerable stress upon the nature of expectorated matter in 

 their practice and reasoning; I shall therefore endeavour to puriform mat- 

 elucidate the subject by remarks on the puriform n\atter ^^^ expecto- 



, . , rp ■ rated 



expectorated m diiterent cases. 



1. Ai\ abscess occasioned by acute inflammation not only from an ab. 



of a pleurisy, and peripneumony, but of other diseases which ^'^^^'' ^^'^'" 



' •' ' ' ^ „ ^ , . . acute inflam- 



have not the symptoms of any one which has received a de- mation; 



sigoation. Here there ought to be no doubt ; for the matter 



which is coughed up suddenly and abundantly on the bursting 



of the abscess is evidently pus with little mucus. Such matter 



consists of the essentia! ingredients of pus, (Sect. VIF, 1,) 



with generally the adventitious substances, (Sect. VII, a, 3, 



4,) viz. coagulated lymph, menbranous or Hbrous parts, and 



a small proportion of the red part of blood. 



2. Purulent expectoration from the rupttire of abscesses, from the rup- 



or vomicae of suppurated tubercles. In suchcases there has ^"'■'^ °^ ^^' , 



, • 1 1 ■ 1 • • 1 I • scessesof 



been a chronical cough with viscid sputum, commonly in suppurated 



persons of an advanced age. After this long contuued o"is- tubercles; 



ease, an abundant expectoration of quite a different kirad 



from the former suddenly comes on ; by which the patient 



often dies very speedily; sometimes immediately, being 



seie'mingly choaked. This kind of matter evidently consists 



chiefly of the essential ingredients of pus (Sect. VII, 1,) with" 



itbt only the adventitious substances, viz. clots of self-coagu- 



tixted lymph, and sometimes the red part of blood, but also 



iliasseS, which are Apparently the broken down solid parts, the 



ctVluiar membrane, the vessels, and substance of thetubercles, 



in a disorganized state. The sufferer often says, such matter 



tastes sweet. The mucus'is here in too small a proportion, 



and not intimately mixed, to occasion disguise. 



3. In the bronchitis, or inflammatory affection of the air in iuflam. 



tubes 



