412 



INFLAMMATION. 



to take up the carmine stain much more readily than endothelia under normal 

 conditions. Around the wreath formed by these endothelia, in many instances, 

 a light space was present, which space was enclosed by a collection of spin- 

 dle-shaped bodies the peri vascular sheath. Outside of this myxomatous 

 layer of connective tissue, in the wall of the abscess, is seen the white sub- 

 stance, bounding the layer of connective tissue in a very nearly straight line, 

 and considerably altered in structure, as will presently be described. In 

 addition to the above-described changes within the wall of the abscess, one of 

 the most striking phenomena exhibited in some of my specimens is the retro- 



grade movement of already newly formed 

 capillary blood-vessels into their embryonal 

 state namely, the dissolution of their walls 

 into medullary or embryonal or indifferent 

 elements, resulting in the formation of solid 

 connective-tissue bundles. 



(2) White Substance. The white substance 

 around the abscess, as mentioned above, was 

 in the condition of softening, and, even after 

 careful preservation of the specimen, difficult 

 to cut. With lower powers of the microscope, 

 in the immediate vicinity of the abscess, the 

 capillary blood-vessels of the white substance 

 were seen to be considerably dilated and en- 

 gorged with blood-corpuscles. The perivas- 

 cular space, in many instances, was also 

 dilated, and filled with a finely granular, evi- 

 dently serous or albuminouS) exudation. The 

 changes in the nerve-tissue were best marked 

 on the periphery of the blood-vessels. The 

 nerve-fibers had lost their myeline-sheath to 

 a considerable degree, and their axis-cylind- 



FIG. 174. -Axis - CYLINDERS 

 FROM THE BOUNDARY BE- 

 TWEEN THE GRAY AND 



A\ rosary-like, A*, club-shaped, 



the breaking apart of the axis-cylin- layer of a faintly reticular bioplasson, which 

 der; .zv, nucleus of the gray substance again was bounded by a thin homogeneous 



OT granular sheath. Owing to a want of di- 

 rect observation I am not enabled to tell 

 what really had become of the myeline. It is, however, very probable that 

 during the initial stages of the inflammatory process the myeline is dissolved 

 out. 



In many places the white substance was transformed into a finely granular 

 mass, in which bioplasson bodies, so-called medullary elements, could be 

 traced out, alternating with groups of shining homogeneous granules and 

 relatively little changed nerve-fibers. 



Higher powers of the microscope gave a complete series of the changes of 

 the axis-cylinders, which had led to the formation of medullary elements. 

 (See Fig. 174.) First, the axis-cylinders exhibited delicate nodular enlarge- 

 ments and, at certain irregular intervals, a more regular rosary-like arrange- 

 ment. In certain districts the axis-cylinder was transformed into a relatively 

 coarse, shining, beaded fiber, also presenting a great many club-like enlarge- 

 ments. Next, some of the granules alongside the axis-cylinders appeared 

 enlarged, and were provided with delicate vacuoles ; and, lastly, the axis- 



