THE MICROSCOPE IN PATHOLOGY AND MEDICINE. 227 



I. MICROSCOPIC APPEARANCES AFTER DEATH OF THE 

 TISSUES, OR NECROSIS. 



1. Blood. This undergoes decomposition more rapidly 

 than other tissues. The colorless corpuscle or bioplast, 

 after slightly swelling, dissolves, and entirely disappears. 

 The coloring matter leaves the red corpuscles shortly after 

 death, and is diffused through the tissues, then the cor- 

 puscle disintegrates, and breaks up into granules. 



2. Nucleated Cells. In these the protoplasm coagulates, 

 forming a solid albuminate, which becomes cloudy, and 

 breaks up into granules. 



3. Cell-membrane resists decomposition in proportion as 

 it has become horny. Hence the outer layers of epithe- 

 lium last longer than the inner ones. 



o 



4. Smooth muscle fibres are first filled with dusty parti- 

 cles, which unite into elongated masses, then they assume 

 a striated appearance, and finally soften into a slimy mat- 

 ter. 



5. Striated Muscular Fibre. The muscle-juice coagu- 

 lates to a solid albumiuate, giving rise to rigor mortis in 

 twelve or fourteen hours after death, except in death from 

 charcoal or sulphuretted hydrogen vapor, lightning, or 

 from putrid fevers or long debility. This stiffness of the 

 muscle lasts about twenty-four hours. Under the micro- 

 scope the transverse strise and nuclei first disappear, then 

 fat- and pigment-granules show themselves, the fibres melt 

 away from the edges and became gelatinous. If gelatin- 

 ous softening is marked, the fibres may disintegrate into 

 Bowman's disks. 



6. Nerve-tissue. Little is known of its necrosis, beyond 

 thelfact that the white substance of Schwann first coagu- 

 lates, then there is a collection of drops of myelin within 

 the neurilemma, producing varicosity before complete 

 dissolution. 



