INFLAMMA TION. 



403 



substance itself breaks up into pus-corpuscles, and that from solid 

 caky masses, the product of the inflamed muscle tissue red 

 blood-corpuscles arise.* 



The invasion of muscle-tissue is immediately followed by an 

 inflammatory process, visible first in the perimysium. (See Fig. 

 169.) The perimysium becomes thickened and more or less 

 crowded with inflammatory cor- 

 puscles. The basis-substance is 

 liquefied, the tissue reduced to 

 its juvenile condition, and the 

 newly appearing medullary cor- 

 puscles by increase of their liv- 

 ing matter become augmented 

 in the same manner in which 

 fibrous connective tissue in gen- 

 eral is affected by the inflamma- 

 tory process. (See page 356.) 



The muscle-fibers in the ear- 

 liest stages of inflammation are 

 unaltered, but very soon a 

 marked change takes place in 

 certain portions, depending 

 upon the location and number 

 of the parasites. The process 

 may attack single muscle-fibers 

 in such a way that almost un- 

 changed fibers lie close to those 

 exhibiting highly advanced al- 

 terations in their texture ; or 

 even a single fiber may be 

 normal in parts, and in parts FIG. 

 invaded by the inflammatory 

 process. 



The first noticeable change 

 consists in an enlargement of 

 the sarcous elements and a destruction of their regular arrange- 

 ment, together with the appearance of a larger number of bodies, 

 usually termed the nuclei of the muscle-fiber. These formations 



* Arnold Spina. " Untersuchungen iiber die entziindl. Veranderungeu d. 

 quergestreifteri Muskelfasern." Wiener Mediz. JahrMcher, 1878. In this 

 essay a full account of the literature of this subject is found. 



169. STRIPED MUSCLE FROM 

 THE LEG OF A MAN, RECENTLY 

 INVADED BY TRICHINAE. 



F, trichina in front view ; S, trichina in side 

 view. Magnified 200 diameters. 



