VIRCHOW, ON THE CELLULOSE QUESTION. 2b7 



hand., Bd. V., p. 18), and numerous points in the atrophied 

 substance of the brain and spinal cord. I have myself re- 

 peatedly found them in astonishing^ quantity in the gelatinous 

 and cellular softening of the brain, and particularly of the spinal 

 cord. Busk found them, in one case, throughout neaily tlu; 

 whole brain. Willigk (Prager Vierteljahrsch. 1854, Bd. IV., 

 p. 93) discovered them in cicatriform spots in the bi'ain ; and 

 Rokitansky (Sitz, Ber. der Wiener Akad, 1854, Mai. Bd. 

 XIII., p. 122), in various parts in a state of atrophy, particu- 

 larly in the brain. Like Busk I have also seen tliem in the 

 choroid plexus, although I am not quite sure whether they 

 may not have been accidentally introduced. 



2. The S2}leen. In this organ the change exists both in the 

 cells of the follicles and of the pulp. The arteries, as has 

 been stated before by Meckel, exhibit the degeneiation in 

 their thickened walls throughout all the coats, and, in par- 

 ticular, there is no doubt that the annular fibrous coat also par- 

 ticipates in it. Sanders (Monthly Journal, 1854, Nov., p. 468) 

 rightly remarks that the traheculoi likewise are changed ; 

 I have seen them thickened and rendered blue throughout by 

 the action of I'eagents. If the deposit is not quite pure, the 

 colour is more of a violet tint, or perhaps of green or greenish 

 blue. 



3. The liver. In the true waxy degeneration it is chiefly 

 the hepatic cells which undergo the change, although it some- 

 times happens that the inteistitial connective tissue as well is 

 implicated in it. 



4. The kidneys. In these organs the amyloid condition is 

 of the most frequent occurrence. The change commencing 

 most usually in the Malpighian coils and in the afferent arteries, 

 which are enormously thickened and have their walls infiltrated 

 throughout. Next to these the connective tissue, surrounding 

 the papillary tubuli uriniferi, is chiefly affected ; far more 

 rarely the portions seated higher up. 



Further investigations will show whether a simple infiltra- 

 tion exists in these cases, or a direct degeneration. The case 

 related by Stratford (Quarterly Journal Mic. Sci., 1854, 

 p. 168) of an epileptic patient, in whom corpora amylacea are 

 said to have existed in the blood, is not so certain that the 

 matter can be regarded as decided by it. In any case, in 

 most organs we have to do with an indubitable change in the 

 structural elements ; and should my original view be farther 

 confirmed, this change might briefly be described as a ligni- 

 fication of them. 



It is of especial interest to consider the finer varieties of 

 this substance in connexion with the corresponding vegetable 



