56 TEKMINATIONS OF INFLAMMATION". 



those around it would separate from it, and it would be ejected 

 from them." — (Paget.) 



Mortification of the soft parts may be white or black in 

 appearance, and it may be humid (moist) or dry. The mortified 

 part has a black appearance when the blood is extravasated 

 into the tissue, giving it a purple or dingy hue, whilst to the 

 touch it is soft and doughy. It has a dull-white appearance in 

 frost-bites, when by the action of cold the blood has been 

 driven from the part. 



Moist gangTcne occurs when the blood transudes, and after 

 its transudation separates into its constituent parts. The serum 

 being set free, dissolves the red globules, raises up the surface 

 of the cuticle in bladders, forming what are termed " phlyctense." 

 Air generated by incipient putrefaction is not unfrequently 

 contained in the phlyctente, giving to the finger touching the 

 part a sensation of crepitation. 



Dry mortification is very rarely met with, but it has been 

 observed to follow the use of ergotised rye as food on tlie Con- 

 tinent of Europe, where it not only attacks the lower animals, 

 but human beings, in the form of mortification of the extremities. 

 It may, however, occur in any part of the body which has been 

 deprived of its blood and a further supply cut off. Sloughing 

 of the cornea has been observed in animals fed upon food defi- 

 cient in nitrogenous elements, and in my experience cases 

 have occurred of sloughing of the tail from dry gangrene in 

 horned cattle that have been starved, ill-treated, or have suffered 

 from debilitating diseases or old age. This form of mortification 

 may also be observed in the course of scarlatina in the horse, 

 " when some extreme part of the organism, such as the ears, 

 will suddenly present a blanched appearance; the skin of these 

 organs wdll suddenly shrink and become hard and dry, as 

 though frozen, and in the course of a day or two these blanched 

 portions snap of, leaving exposed a raw surface, which speedily 

 suppurates."— (Haycock.) Mortification of the tails of mon- 

 keys is too well known to need comment. 



Necr^mia, or death of the blood, is well shown in those dire 

 diseases which affect horned cattle, namely, splenic apoplexy 

 and quarter-ill. In these diseases we have local manifestations 

 of the general blood crasis, by the development of large patches 

 of extravasation of dead and decomposing blood, the death and 



