426 



INFLAMMA TION. 



uterine process is the fatty and pigmentary degeneration of the 

 covering endothelia of the heart, probably caused by pericarditis. 

 (See Fig. 177.) 



Tissues in fatty degeneration are often subject to calcareous 

 depositions, both processes being indicative of a lowered nutri- 

 tion of the bioplasson, the causes of which are not clearly under- 

 stood. 



Pigmentary degeneration is closely allied to fatty degeneration. 

 Even under normal conditions fat-globules may contain a diffuse 



or granular coloring matter, and 

 fatty and pigment degenerations 

 are often found combined. "We 

 have no chemical analysis of the 

 pigment; but its source is un- 

 questionably the coloring matter 

 of the blood. Extravasated blood, 

 after a while, produces rhomboidal 

 or needle-shaped crystals of haema- 

 toidine, which are in color dark 

 reddish-brown. (See chapter on 

 urine.) If the coloring matter be 

 imbibed by living plastids, pig- 

 ment-granules of a rust-brown or 

 brownish black color will be seen 

 in these bodies. The rusty color 

 of the tissue, sometimes seen 

 abounding in old, healed apo- 

 plectic focus in the brain, is due 

 to the presence of pigment-gran- 

 ules. Rokitansky maintained, in 

 1846, that in melanotic cancer the 

 pigment is supplied by the blood, 

 which originates in the mother 

 cells. My own researches, made 

 especially in the boundaries of 

 melanotic myeloma of the choroid invading the vitreous body, 

 demonstrate that the sources of the pigment are the haemato- 

 blasts i. e., lumps of living matter, saturated with coloring 

 matter (haemoglobin ?) of the blood. The points of intersection 

 of the bioplasson reticulum within these plastids are enlarged, and 

 assume a dark yellow or brown tint, remaining, however, in con- 

 nection with the reticulum. By coalescence of the granules pig- 



FIG. 177. FATTY AND PIGMENT- 

 ARY DEGENERATION OF THE 

 PERICARDIAL ENDOTHELIUM OF 

 THE HEART OF A CHILD. 



F, endothelia, exhibiting the begin- 

 ning of fatty change of the granules of 

 bioplasson; P, endothelia, with pigment 

 granules in their interior. Magnified 600 

 diameters. 



