214 METAMORPHOSIS OF TISSUE. 



anatomist who studied the so-called fatty metamorphosis in 

 certain cellular organs, as for instance, the kidneys, spleen, 

 liver, &c., and recognised it as one of the more frequent termina- 

 tions of the process of inflammation, whilst Schultze* regarded it 

 as the product of excessive plastic activity (see vol. i., p. 252). 

 Virchow has attempted, with considerable ingenuity, to show that 

 an accession of fat from without is scarcely conceivable during the 

 fatty degeneration of entire organs and individual cells ; but still 

 we can hardly consider this view fully proved, owing to the 

 extensive diffusion of fat in most animal fluids, and the frequent 

 depositions of fat in organs enlarged by morbid processes. The 

 interesting experiments of R. Wagnerf appear, however, to furnish 

 the most decisive proof in favour of this view. When Wagner 

 found that testicles which had been introduced into the abdominal 

 cavity of hens were completely changed and converted into a 

 shrivelled fatty mass, he introduced crystalline lenses, portions of 

 coagulated albumen, and similar non-fatty protein bodies into the 

 abdominal cavities of pigeons and other birds, and these, after a 

 lapse of time varying from twenty-five to fifty-four days, were also 

 found to be wholly changed, leaving a residue, the quantitative 

 analysis of which yielded, in addition to some traces of nitrogenous 

 matters, a larger proportion of fat than the substance originally 

 employed had contained. DondersJ and Middeldorpf have sub- 

 sequently made similar experiments with tendons, cartilages, and 

 bones, and obtained very nearly the same results as Wagner; 

 Bonders, however, maintained that the fatty metamorphosis must 

 be limited to the cells ; but this opinion seems to be refuted by the 

 observations of Wagner and others. As, however, Wagner him- 

 self had started the objection, that fat might be introduced from 

 without, that is to say, from the exudation forming itself (from 

 fat) around the foreign body, and might pass into the disappear- 

 ing nitrogenous matter, more especially as in some, although not in 

 all cases, the fat presented the appearance of having been infiltrated 

 from the external surface, it was necessary to alter the experiments 

 by cutting off every supply of fat from without. For this purpose 

 Husson,|| who had repeatedly confirmed Wagner's earlier observa- 

 tions, undertook a series of experiments under the direction of 



* De adipis genesi pathologica, Comm. proemio orn. Gryphiae, 1852, p. 47. 



t Gottinger gel. Anz. 1851, No. 8. 



t Nederlandsch Lancet, 3 SeV. Jaarg. 1, p. 556. 



Gunsburg's Zeitschr. f. klin. Med. Bd. 3, S. 59. 



|| Gottinger gel. Anz. 1853. No. 5. 



