2Q2 FRANCIS A. HULST. 



Along with this change in the nuclei there is a rapid destruc- 

 tion of the contractile-substance as above described. In one case 

 by a gradual dissolution, and in the other by the advent of phag- 

 ocytic cells. In the former instance there is a loss of substance 

 without visible cause, and similar to the phenomena of lyocytosis 

 by which Anglas (*oo) accounts for the destruction of larval 

 muscles. It would seem that some unseen agent was producing 

 a digestive action upon the muscles in question. This is illus- 

 trated by the conditions represented in Plate X., Fig. 2. This 

 process is marked all through the period of muscular degenera- 

 tion in all parts of the body, and is undoubtedly the chief factor 

 in the destruction of these organs. What cells are active in 

 secreting an enzyme for the digestion of these inert organs, and 

 why it manifests a selective action upon such tissues is difficult 

 of explanation. 



It has been shown that the degeneration of the muscles may 

 be seen making rapid progress without the aid or intervention of 

 phagocytes as contended by authors already cited. These wan- 

 dering cells, however, make their appearance, and, at times, in 

 considerable numbers, but in proportion to the amount of degen- 

 eration taking place their number is indeed small and inadequate 

 to the work to be performed. In fact, it may be said that phag- 

 ocytes play no part in the degeneration of the muscles in a true 

 sense. After the muscle has become altered in its morpholog- 

 ical, physiological, and chemical characteristics, as shown by its 

 loss of striation and separation of nuclei, by its inertness, and by 

 its changed reaction to dyes, and even broken to fragments 

 either by inherent properties of the tissues themselves or by 

 some chemical agent within the body, the debris becomes a for- 

 eign body. Wandering cells of the body which have a phago- 

 cytic action, whether blood cells or specialized cells derived from 

 mesoblastic tissue, will set about the removal of such foreign 

 material, and in so doing will only be performing their usual 

 physiological function. 



The origin of phagocytic cells in Cnlex is not to be attributed 

 to the blood or to the free formation of cells in the degenerating 

 tissues, but to the multiplication of small cells of the connective 

 tissue which are not of a highly specialized character. Plate X., 



