BENNETT'S CLINICAL LECTURES. 255 
trated or encysted form; but these distinctions have no reference to struc- 
ture, but merely to the extent and age of the exudation. It generally 
presents a yellowish or dirty-white colour, and varies in consistence from a 
substance resembling tough cheese to that of cream. Sometimes it is soft 
at one place, and indurated at another. On section, when tough, it pre- 
sents a smooth or waxy, and when soft, a slightly granular surface. On 
pressure if is friable, and may break down into a pulpy matter, but never 
yields a milky juice. 
* A small portion squeezed between glasses, and examined under the 
inicroscope, presents a number of irregular shaped bodies approaching a 
round, oval, or triangular form, varying in their longest diameters from the 
1-2000th to 1-1200th of an inch. These bodies contain from one to seven 
granules, are unaffected by water, but rendered very transparent by acetic 
acid. ‘They are what have been called tubercular corpuscles. Tiey are 
always mingled with a multitude of molecules and granules, which are more 
numerous as the tubercle is more soft. Occasionally, when softened tu- 
bercle resembles pus, constituting scrofulous purulent matter, we find the 
corpuscles more rounded, avd approaching the character of pus-cells. They 
do not always, however, on the addition of acetic acid, exhibit the peculiar 
granular nuclei of these bodies. 
“The gray granulations described by Bayle may be seen on careful ma- 
nagemnent of the light, after the addition of acetic acid, to contain similar 
bodies to those described as tubercle corpuscles, closely aggregated toge- 
ther, with their edges indistinct, and containing few granules. 
“Cretaceous and calcareous tubercles, on the other hand, contain very 
few of these bodies, their substance being principally made up of numerous 
irregular masses of phosphate of lime, and a greater or less number of 
erystals of cholestrine. 
“Tubercle corpuscles may be associated with pus and granular cells, as 
well as those peculiar to glandular organs or mucous surfaces in various 
stages of fatty transformation and disintegration. With all these they 
have frequently been confounded.” (pp. 1438, 144.) 
Futly Degeneration of Muscle.—“There can be no doubt that the fibro- 
albuminous substance constituting flesh is capable of undergoing a trans- 
formation into fat. Of the exact chemical nature of that transformation 
we have yet to be informed; but it may not only be observed in the dead 
body, but may be produced artificially, by exposing muscle to a running 
stream of water, whereby it is changed into adipocere. In voluntary muscle, 
we observe that the degeneration commences with diminished distinctness 
of the transverse strie, especially at the circumference of the fasciculus. 
As this extends inwards, minute molecules of fat occupy the position of the 
stri, and at length obliterate them; gradually these coalesce, globules of 
various sizes are formed within the sarcolemma, and the normal structure of 
voluntary muscle disappears. During the early changes the fasciculus be- 
comes soft, exhibits a tendency to crack crossways, and ultimately is so 
pulpy as to be capable of being squeezed easily into an amorphous mass, 
from which large oil-drops exude. To the naked eye, the muscular sub- 
stance becomes paler, and more and more fawn-coloured, and at length 
yel.ow, whilst its normal density is greatly diminished. These changes are 
easily observed in the heart, in which organ they have been made the sub- 
ject of special research by Ormerod, Paget, Quain, and others. The histo- 
logical and clinical researches of Dr. Quain on this subject are of the 
greatest importance. 
* Allthe voluntary muscles, however, are susceptible of undergoing a si ni- 
lar lesion, and it may be not unfrequently seen in those of the lower ex- 
tremity after long-continued paralysis, disease of the hip-joint, or other 
