INFLAMMA TION. 



437 



JV 



The shining fields are doubtless in close relation to the capillary blood- 

 vessels, inasmuch as they appeared, by the side of the capillaries, as if in the 

 perivascular space, without at first invading the endothelial coat itself. With 

 advancing degeneration in the neighborhood of the blood-vessels, they also 

 became destroyed to such an extent that the direction of the glistening tracts 

 was the only indication of the course of the former capillaries ; though, also, 

 in such tracts, occasionally, a small portion of the original capillary was 

 found imbedded. The numerous straight tracts following the course of the 

 axis- cylinders were evidently due to a degeneration upon a large scale. 



Owing to the tolerably high degree of refraction of these fields, my first 

 impression was that a fatty degeneration of the gray substance had taken 

 place. The treatment of the specimens, however, with strong alcohol and 

 oil of cloves at once revealed the fact that these formations could not be fat, 

 for they were not perceptibly altered by those re-agents. A second full proof 

 of their not being fat was the treatment with a one per cent, solution of 

 osmic acid, which we know 

 to be the most trustworthy 

 re-agent for fat, and which 

 should stain the fat black. 

 No such thing occurred in 

 my specimens. 



The next question was, 

 could the waxy nature of 

 these fields be proved by the 

 application of different re- 

 agents ? To answer this 

 question I applied the fol- 

 lowing re-agents : Carmine, 

 iodine, hsematoxylon, fuch- 

 sine, violet methyl-aniline, 

 picro-indigo, and chloride of 

 gold. Among those, picro- 

 indigo was the only one 

 which, in Emerson's case, 

 yielded a positive result, 

 where the waxy blood-vessels 

 and globules were rendered 

 by it a bright green. In my case 

 no one of these re-agents, 

 not even the picro-indigo, 

 yielded positive results, as 

 all the hyaline fields remained 

 unchanged in their color. 



Nevertheless, I am satis- 

 fied that this change is ma- 

 terially a form of waxy de- 

 generation, somewhat different from the degeneration in Emerson's case, but 

 kindred to the waxy degeneration which J. B. Greene * described in the pla- 

 centa as the most common cause of abortion and premature birth. 



* " American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children," vol. xiii., No. 2, 

 April, 1880. 



W* 



FIG. 180. WAXY DEGENERATION OF THE GRAY 

 SUBSTANCE OF THE THALAMUS OPTICUS. 



V, capillary blood- vessel, containing a granular mass, 

 compressed at its upper portion, surrounded by a layer 

 of the waxy mass ; G, gray substance, the meshes of the 

 bioplasson enlarged by the waxy material, which col- 

 lects into branching, irregularly contoured, shining 

 fields, Wi, W*; N, nucleus of the gray substance; a 

 part of the periphery, surrounded by a waxy mass. 

 Magnified 800 diameters. 



