320 Dr. Pearson on expectorated Matter. 
such pus. Accordingly this expectorated matter is not only 
opaque, white, or yellowish, and as thick as the richest cream, 
but it also has not more tenacity than cream. It is not apt to 
entangle air, and therefore it immediately mingles with water, 
rendering it milky; and presently subsides to the bottom, 
leaving the water clear, or at least whey-coloured. It appears 
to the naked eye uniform in its texture ; and nearly so under 
the simple lens: but under the microscope thousands of glo- 
bules similar to those of the blood are seen, which are inde- 
structible as those above related belonging to another kind of 
expectorated matter. 
The substance, of which I am now speaking, is most fre- 
quently excreted in the latter stages of pulmonary phthisis, for 
many weeks successively. It is taken for granted that this 
matter is from a breach of surface or ulceration ; but on exa- 
mination after death, such a state was not found, in many 
instances, under my observation, although the lungs were as 
usual full of tubercles and vomicae. This puriform matter 
is occasionally expectorated in certain other diseases. The 
last summer my colleague, Dr. Nevinson, furnished me with 
several ounces of this sort of substance, but of a greenish 
hue, and of the consistence of thin cream ; which was expec- 
torated by a woman in the third week from the attack of the 
measles. In a few days she died. On examination of the 
lungs very carefully, by the excellent house surgeon of St. 
George’s hospital, Mr. Dawes, no ulceration could be disco- 
vered in the trachea or in the bronchial tubes ; nor were any 
tubercles, or abscesses found in the lungs. The patient, ac- 
cording to my information, had expectorated more than a pint 
of this fluid every twenty- four hours for a week before death. 
