FATTY DEGENERATION. 25 



oil globules make their appearance. We see them arranged 

 in very fine and delicate beaded rows parallel with the long axis 

 of the primitive fasciculus, and coinciding precisely with the 

 varicose threads of the interfibrillar protoplasm. The transverse 

 stride which, after all, are merely due to the uniform arrangement 

 of the more highly refracting particles, must naturally grow 

 indistinct in proportion as the yet more highly refracting fat- 

 granules predominate, and so impair the effect of the groups of 

 disdiaclasts on light {Bvikke's disdiaclast groups — sarcous ele- 

 ments). In very advanced cases of the disease we see nothing 

 but the oily cZe6m, contained, like some fluid, in the tube of sarco- 

 lemma (fig. 7). 



§ 31. The physico-chemical processes which underlie the fatty 

 degeneration of cells have not, as yet, been very clearly ascer- 

 tained. We may, however, repudiate the notion that the oil 

 globules penetrate into the interior of the cells from without ; 

 against this view we have the fact that muscular tissue in a 

 moderate state of fatty degeneration does not contain a higher 

 percentage amount of fatty matter than normal muscle. The 

 only remaining alternative is that the oil globules are generated 

 in the cell itself. But are they to be viewed as the result of 

 some disturbance in the nutrition of the cell, or as products of 

 the decomposition of its substance ? The most likely hypothesis 

 is that we have to do with phenomena diametrically opposite to 

 those which accompany cell development. We know from the 

 composition of the yelk that the material of which the cells are 

 built up consists of albuminous compounds, with a rich admix- 

 ture of fatty matter. Further, we learn by chemical analj^sis 

 that healthy muscle contains a considerable proportion of invisible 

 fatty matter ; so that we are justified in assuming the existence 

 of an amalgam-like compound of fat and albumen in cells. 

 Fatty degeneration would thus be a "decomposition" of this 

 amalgam, the liberated oil appearing in the protoplasm in the 

 form of globules of appreciable size. The simultaneous enlarge- 

 ment of the cell is explained when we reflect that the same 

 quantities of fat and albumen require more space when separate 

 than in their previous state of intimate combination. 



§ 32. The minute changes which take place in the distal end 

 of a divided nerve would powerfully corroborate tlie views 

 enunciated above, were it clearly proved that the coagulation of 



