398 RETROGRESSIVE CHANGES 



without demonstrable impairment of function.^" They may disap- 

 pear dm-ing acute infections, and they bear no constant relation to 

 fatty changes. 



We may speak with more assurance concerning the swelling of the 

 cell, and attribute it to an edema of the cell contents, it having been 

 shown that in cloudy swelhng the water content of the organs is in- 

 creased.^^ This might be produced by a rise in osmotic pressure due 

 to abnormally rapid splitting of proteins with incomplete oxidation of 

 the substances formed, which results in formation of many crj^stalloid 

 molecules with high total osmotic pressure, from a smaller number of 

 colloid molecules with almost no osmotic pressure. It has frequently 

 been shown that the cell-walls do not lose their semipermeable 

 character until the death of the cell occurs; hence in cloudy swell- 

 ing water diffuses in much more rapidly than the crystalloids can 

 diffuse out,^^ causing a hydropic swelling. This hypothesis is sup- 

 ported by the observations of Cesaris Demel,^^ who found that by 

 modifying the osmotic conditions of the cells, particularly epithelial 

 cells, he could closely reproduce many of the characteristic features 

 of parenchymatous degeneration. It is possible, also, that too high 

 concentration of crystalloids within the cells may be a factor in the 

 precipitation of the cell colloids. In view of the fact that in the 

 earliest stages of autolysis, histologic and microscopic changes closely 

 resembling those of cloudy swelhng are pronounced, and that organs 

 the seat of cloudy swelling notoriously undergo autolysis with extreme 

 rapidity after death, ^"^ we may also consider that this process is possibly 

 in part responsible for the change of ordinary intra vitam cloudy 

 swelling. The appearance of fine granules of lipoid substance^"" (myelin 

 or "protagon") in cells during autolysis and during cloudy swelling 

 is in support of this idea, and chemical analysis of organs showing cloudy 

 swelling gives definite evidence of autolytic decomposition of the pro- 

 teins and an increase in the water content. ^^ Presumably this increase 

 in water is the cause of the lowered specific gravitj'- of organs exhibiting 

 parenchymatous degeneration.^^ Landsteiner, through his studies of 

 cloudy swelling in human material, also came to the conclusion that 

 autolysis is an important element in its production. 



Martin H. Fischer^*^ applies the principles of colloidal chemistry 

 to the problem and concludes that the changes of cloudy swelling 



80 Shannon, .lour. Lab. Clin. Med., 191G (1), 541. 



81 Schwenkenbecher and Ingaki, Arch. exp. Path. u. Phann., 1906 (55), 203. 



82 See introductory chapter concerning osmosis; also discussion of edema. 



83 Lo Sperimentale, 1905; Cent. f. Path., 1905 (IG), 613. 



84 See Medigreceanu, Jour. Exp. Med., 1914 (19), 309. 



s^Orglcr, Virchow's Arcli., 1904 (176), 413; Hess and Saxl, ibid., 1910 (202), 

 149. 



86 Verh. Deut. Path. Gesell, 1903 (6), 76. 



87 See Olsho, Arch. Int. Med., 1908 (2), 171. 



88 "Oedema and Nephritis," New York, 1915, p. 455; also Zeit. Chcm. u. Indust. 

 Colloide, 1911 (8), 159. 



