Page:The third Huxley lecture.pdf/10

6 As a Student at University College I was greatly attracted by Dr. Sharpey's lectures, which inspired me with a love of physiology that has never left me. My father, whose labours (vide "On the Improvement oft Achromatic Compound Microscopes," by J. J. Lister, Esq., "Phil. Trans.," 1830) had raised the compound microscope from little better than a scientific toy to the powerful engine for investigation which it then already was, had equipped me with a first-rate instrument of that kind, and I employed it with keen interest in verifying the details of histology brought before us by our great master. When I afterwards became house surgeon under Mr. Erichsen, I applied the same means of observation to pathological objects.

One of the earliest records that I find of such work is in the form of sketches of the corpuscles in the pus in a case of pyaemia, which occurred after excision of the elbow in a little boy. The cancellated tissue of the humerus at the seat of operation and the adjacent part of the medullary cavity were seen, on post-mortem examination, to be occupied by thick, yellow pus, and similar fluid distended the brachial and axillary veins and their branches, including not only those leading from the bone towards the venous trunks, but also those proceeding from other parts of the limb, while the upper part of the axillary was plugged with a firm adhering clot. There was also suppuration in one knee-joint and multiple abscesses in the lungs. I was struck with the fact that the pus