240 (>N HIE CHANGES OCCURRING 



ON THE 



PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES OCCURRING IN CER- 

 TAIN DEVITALISED TISSUES. 



[Communicated to the Royal Medical-Chirurgical Society of London, 

 Received May 23rd, 1854 ; read June 27th, 1854.] 



THE subordination of ordinary chemical laws to 

 the superior controlling power of life, is one of 

 the most interesting and important principles of 

 physiology ; and modern pathology is now rapidly 

 establishing the converse of this proposition by 

 demonstrating that the partial or complete destruc- 

 tion of their inherent vital powers again subjects to 

 the general laws of matter the structures thus 

 morbidly affected. Till a comparatively recent 

 period, the various forms of gangrene were alone 

 considered indicative of the death of a part ; after- 

 ter wards, softening of certain internal organs was 

 pronounced an analogous pathological condition ; 

 and of late, the degenerations of tissues are admitted, 

 by the best pathologists, to indicate and follow an 

 insidious local deprivation of vital properties and 

 powers in which many of the most fatal diseases 

 originate. 



\Yhen, therefore, from any cause, the tissues of the 

 living body lose their vitality, either wholly or in 

 part, they at once begin to undergo processes of dc- 



