VASCULAR AND ABSORBENT SYSTEMS. 665 



disposed in a stellate (Fig. 374, a) form, are sometimes observed, 



especially in specimens obtained from 



emaciated subjects. In disease, the fat- FIG. 374. 



cells are sometimes found degenerated, 



and containing a serous fluid, in which 



the nucleus is quite distinctly seen, 



amidst numerous granules. Sometimes 



the cell is shrivelled and irregular in 



form ; frequently it assumes an angular 



shape. 



Fatty degeneration consists in the con- 

 version of healthy structures into true 

 adipose tissue. The muscular system 

 seems to be most liable to this change. 

 Prior to the appearance of fatty degeneration in voluntary muscle, 

 the transverse stride disappear. According to Mr. Quekett, the 

 first trace of this disease is marked by a disturbance of the par- 

 ticles of myoline, which appear as so many very minute granules 

 scattered irregularly within the sarcolemma, leading one to sup- 

 pose that the delicate cell around each particle had given way, 

 thereby allowing the myoline to escape, and destroying all regu- 

 larity both of the transverse and longitudinal markings. As the 

 disease progresses, the myoline is replaced by minute highly- 

 refracting globules of oil, until at last the whole sheath is full of 

 them. 1 



The muscular fibres of the heart, and Especially those of the 

 musculi pectinati, afford frequent instances of the change in 

 question. Muscles which have been long disused, as in cases of 

 paralysis, club foot, &c., exhibit this species of degeneration in a 

 striking degree. "Fatty degeneration appears also to occur in 

 osseous tissues, and indeed the disease termed Mollities ossium is 

 of this nature. All bones so affected have thin walls, are always 

 more or less soft, and contain an abundance of oil. I have 

 examined the bones in several cases, and found that the disease 

 first commences in the bone-cells, the cell itself becoming larger 

 and larger, its canaliculi disappearing, and several of these cells 

 uniting to form a cavity, in which oil-globules soon make their 

 appearance, all the parts of the bone in the neighborhood of the 

 cells becoming at the same time thin and transparent from the 

 removal of the granules of earthy matter." (Quekett.) In the 

 Lancet, for 1850, the student will find an interesting paper, by 

 Mr. Canton, on the Arcus Senilis, produced by fatty degenera- 

 tion of the cornea. In fatty degeneration of the kidney, the 

 epithelial cells become filled with numerous oil-globules, to such 

 an extent sometimes as to burst and be discharged in fragments, 

 leaving the surface of the tubules in some places almost bare. 



1 Lectures on Histology. 



