ON MEMBRANE GENERALLY. 
35 
that portion of the body which is the basis and mould of all the 
rest. It is diffused over the whole frame. It composes the tissue 
in which the earthy matter of every bone is deposited, and con¬ 
stitutes the main bulk of every bone. It encloses every muscle 
as its external sheath ; it enwraps every bundle of fibres, every 
individual fibre, and, perhaps, the ultimate fibre may consist of 
condensed membrane. I will not detain you with any theory of 
its own ultimate structure, whether solid or vascular; each has 
its supporters; while a third party maintains that the fibre of the 
membrane is alive ; is composed of innumerable living beings. 
I will not detain you with this, but proceed to observe, that the 
tendons are composed of flattened plates of membrane ; the liga¬ 
ments of membrane otherwise arranged ; the cartilages, termi¬ 
nated, defended by, made up of membrane ; the brain enveloped 
by it, and formed of it; the nerves surrounded by it, every fibril 
coated with it; the nervous substance seemingly fibrous; and, 
the properties of membrane being cohesion, extensibility, and 
elasticity, the bladder, the stomach, the heart, the arteries, the 
integument, composed of it, and illustrating the qualities of it. 
Nor will I detain you with the chemical history of membrane; 
or its division into cellular, or adipose, or fibrous, or serous ; 
these will in turn come before us, but content myself with ob¬ 
serving, that this is a mucous membrane, so called from the fluid 
discharged from its vessels,—a true secretion ;—every mucous 
membrane supplied with innumerable glands ; lining those cavi¬ 
ties which communicate with the external air, as the mouth, the 
respiratory passages, the digestive ; apparently far more import¬ 
ant than the serous membranes ; the serous in many cases being 
only designed to prevent friction and facilitate motion, while the 
mucous membranes are generally connected with important func¬ 
tions—the mouth with taste, the nose with smell, the stomach 
with digestion, and the intestines with nutrition; possessing 
more bloodvessels, more nerves, consequently more prone to 
disease, and disease of a particular character ; inflammation in 
one taking on an ulcerative character, the other accompanied by 
effusion and adhesion ; one involving, by inter-communication of 
nerves and vessels, surrounding parts; the disease of the other 
strangely peculiar to itself, peritonitis running its course without 
affecting the mucous membrane of the intestines, the. mucous 
membrane seldom long or violently inflamed without involving 
the peritoneal; inflammation of a serous membrane rarely ac¬ 
companied by prostration of strength; that of a mucous mem¬ 
brane speedily followed by debility. 
The Schneiderian Membrane. —The mucous membrane lining 
the nose is continuous with that of the sinus with which the na- 
