426 LECTURE XVII. 



delicate network, in which the small cells of the gland arc- 

 heaped up, cells, which seem to have a double duty to 

 perform, inasmuch as they discharge their own special 

 functions as gland-cells, and at the same time, as we sup- 

 pose, serve as the starting-points for the development of 

 blood-corpuscles. The arteries run first in the inter- 

 stices of the follicles, and there break up into capillaries 

 which form a web round the follicles, and sometimes even 

 penetrate into their interior. Now the amyloid disease 

 consists on the one hand in a thickening and narrowing of 

 these arteries, so that they convey less blood, and on the 

 other hand in the conversion of the small cells contained 

 in the individual meshes of the follicles into corpora amy- 

 lacea, so that afterwards instead of a number of cells in 

 every mesh of the follicle, a single large corpus amylaceum 

 is met with. Thereby the gland acquires even to the 

 naked eye the appearance as if it were sprinkled all over 

 with little spots of wax, and when examined microscopi- 

 cally, it looks as if the contents of the follicles were a 

 pavement of closely set stones. 



Concerning the importance of these changes, empiri- 

 cally not much can be affirmed ; but, if the contents of 

 the follicles are the essential components of a lymphatic 

 gland, and if from them proceeds the development of the 

 new constituents of the blood, we must, I think, conclude, 

 that this disease of the lymphatic glands and the spleen 

 (in which the follicles are likewise generally affected), 

 must exercise a directly injurious influence upon the for- 

 mation of the blood ; and that the effects therefore pro- 

 duced by the disease are not remote ones, but that the 

 formation of the blood immediately suffers an alteration, 

 so that anaemic conditions must ensue. To the stream 

 of lymph also an obstruction may arise, and in this way 

 again deficiency of absorption, tendency to dropsy, etc., 

 be produced. 



