460 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. , 
age, however, probably never exceeds a year or several months, not- 
withstanding that some glanders-nodules, tubercles, and tumors may 
exist, apparently unchanged, a much longer time, because the constitu- 
ents of the latter, the glanders-cells, change. Old ones decay, and new 
ones take their place even if the whole tubercle or tumor remains essen- 
tially as itis. It is to be supposed that such a change is taking place, 
because every old glanders-tubercie or tumor contains always old and 
new cells in different stages of development. 
The retrogressive metamorphosis maybe called a fatty necrobiosis. 
At first small granules (fat granules) make their appearance in the 
nuclei; the latter swell or increase in size, and grow darker; gran- 
ules appear also within the cells, but outside of the nuclei; finally the 
envelopes or external membranes of the cells decay and fall to pieces, 
and a granulated detritus is left behind. Therefore, after a regressive 
metamorphosis has set in, the glanders-nodules or tubercles and tu- 
mors are found to contain a granulated detritus, small and large 
granulated cells, and free granulated nuclei, if examined under the 
microscope. The glanders-cells may thus perish or be destroyed 
without any simultaneous decay of the intercellular substance. In 
such a case the further changes which are going on in the tissues, in 
which the glanders-cells are imbedded, differ according to circum- 
stances. If the glanders-cells are but few, and rather far apart, the 
granulated detritus is removed by absorption, and the morbid process 
comes to a termination by local healing. In other cases new glanders- 
cells are produced, and take the place of the old ones, and the morbid 
growth (tubercle or tumor) continues to exist. If the decaying glan- 
ders-cells ang numerous and lodged close together, the retrogressive 
metamorphosis is usually attended with a morbid or excessive growth 
or production of intercellular connective tissue; and the absorption of 
the detritus in such a case is attended with, and makes room for, a some- 
what extensive production of new fibrous (scar) tissue; linear and some- 
what prominent, white stripes, usually uniting in a common center, cor- 
responding to the center of the former neoplastic process, make their 
appearance and constitute a star-shaped, whitish scar or cicatrix. In 
chronic glanders such cicatrices occur very often in the mucous mem- 
brane of the septum; the hard, fibroid, and callous swellings, which 
are sometimes found in the mucous membrane of the nose, and the 
fibroid tumors which occur in the lungs, and which are easily distin- 
guished from the more pulpy glanders-nodules and tumors, are pro- 
duced in the same way. 
Frequently, however, that is, in all such tubercles and tumors in 
which the glanders-cells are numerous and separated only by very little 
intercellular tissue, the decay or retrogressive metamorphosis of the 
glanders-cells involves and causes a simultaneous decay and destruction 
of the intercellular substance, and of the tissue in which the morbid 
products are imbedded. The continuity is destroyed, and an abscess is 
formed. The decay usually, though not necessarily, begins in the cen- 
ter of the nidus of cells, and it seems that certain external influences 
are able to change or to accelerate the whole process. So, for instance, 
a general decay, or a formation of ulcers or abscesses, does not usually 
take place in the mucous membrane of the maxillary cavities, but almost 
invariably, or, at any rate, a great deal earlier in such parts of the nasal 
mucous membrane, which are exposed to the current of air passing 
through the nose at each breath. The irritation caused by the passage 
of air probably constitutes the cause of the more frequent occurrence of 
glanders-ulcers in the mucous membrane of the septum than in any 
