CEETAIN DEVITALISED TISSUES. 249 



partly by the absorption of the more liquid portions 

 of the devitalised tissues by the blood-vessels of the 

 adjacent living structures, and partly also by a pecu- 

 liar tendency of abnormal fibro-cellular tissue to 

 undergo a continuous process of contraction, which 

 may, however, to a certain extent, be itself a result of 

 the above-mentioned cause of diminished bulk. 



Induration admits of a very similar explanation ; 

 its pathology being very analogous to that of con- 

 traction, and itself a frequent concomitant of that 

 morbid condition. 



Fatty degeneration offers one of the most interesting 

 examples which pathological science has yet revealed 

 of the wonderful extent to which obscure and deep- 

 seated morbid changes may result from simple 

 physico-chemical laws, brought into operation by 

 the diminished vitality of the tissues of the living 

 body. For in all essential particulars it corresponds 

 to the change into adipocere of muscle and other 

 animal structures, occasionally noticed when bodies 

 have been for a length of time exposed to certain 

 physical conditions. 



Calcareous degeneration is the most unintelligible 

 of all these morbid changes ; for here we have not 

 only a re-arrangement of the chemical elements of 

 the decayed structures, but there is an absolute 

 excess of one or more elementary substance (calcium 

 and phosphorus), the source of which is not very 

 easily explained. And though the received laws of 

 chemistry, and the cautious spirit of inductive phi- 

 losophy, at present enforce the conclusion, that the 

 excess of phosphate of lime is deposited by the 



