158 PHYSIC 



duced, whereby a damming back of them takes place, 

 which damming back leads, of necessity, sooner or later 

 to regurgitation of them into the cerebro-spinal cavity 

 along the intra-lemmar spaces of the peripheral nerves, 

 which, accordingly, and in proportion to their quantity, 

 increases the intra-cranial pressure, and which, if not 

 relieved by discharge from the nasal and pituitary channels 

 anteriorly, or the peri- and endo-anal apertures posteriorly, 

 or other channels, finds its way from that cavity along the 

 lines of least resistance, which are the peri-neural inter- 

 spaces surrounding the motor nerve trunks. 



This having taken place, the cerebro-spinal fluid, which 

 has now become charged with an effete, and, consequently, 

 toxic sudorous material, is injected or run into the intra- 

 muscular textures, with the consequence that " rheumatic,' 5 

 and not necessarily "inflammatory," pains are produced, 

 with more or less stiffening and, it may be, swelling, 

 which, if repeated and continued, may finally result in 

 complete loss of the power of contraction or contractility 

 of the affected muscles, with destruction of their sarcous 

 material or muscle discs myopathy. 



The pains, stiffening, and loss of contractile power, 

 result from the disturbance of the motor nerve energy 

 supply of the affected muscles, arising from the loss of 

 response to the usual motor nerve stimuli, the disintegra- 

 tion and absorption of the sarcous and contractile sub- 

 stance of the proper muscle fibres, the final displacement 

 of the sarcous elements, as well as sclerosis of the muscle 

 fibres proper. 



The materies morbi is thus, so to speak, "produced on 

 the premises," and leads, consequently, to auto-toxis by, 

 most likely, a series of chemico-physiological and patho- 

 logical changes, due to its invasion of, and incorporation 

 with, the muscle substance, and to associated inflammatory 

 changes in the non-sarcous elements of the affected muscles 

 a secondary pathological process. Moreover, and we 

 must reiterate the statement, it seems to us that the non- 

 sarcous structures of the affected muscles are not neces- 

 sarily increased in pseudo-muscular hypertrophy by hyper- 

 proliferation of their connective tissue cells, but that this 

 matrix, after the removal of its accompanying and con- 



