AMYLOID INFILTRATION. 45 



ncration in each individual case, -we shall find much in favour of 

 this view ; the question is not, however, so far advanced towards 

 solution as to require further discussion in this place. 



§ 47. Let us glance at the histological phenomena of the pro- 

 cess. The cell which has undergone amyloid infiltration differs 

 from a normal cell — first, by its greater size. It exceeds the 

 normal standard usually by one-third, sometimes by two-thirds, 

 of its diameter ; nay, its size may even have been doubled. 



Fig. 14. 



Liver-cells infiltrated with amyloid matter, a. Isolated cells ; 

 h. A fragment of the secreting network in which the boun- 

 daries of the individual cells have ceased to be visible. 



This increase in size is attended by an alteration in shape ; 

 the cell grows fuller and more plump ; its characteristic outline 

 fades ; its angles are blunted ; the most striking feature, however, 

 being its homogeneous, transparent, faintly opaline aspect. The 

 nucleus ceases to be recognisable ; everything points to a thorough 

 impregnation of the protoplasm with a highly refracting sub- 

 stance, which masks all inequalities produced by minor differ- 

 ences of refractive power. When several amyloid cells are in 

 contact with one another, thev usuallv coalesce to form irreirular 

 and, for the most part, elongated masses, in which the lines of 

 demarcation between the individual elements can no lonorer be 



o 



discerned. 



^ 48. Amyloid infiltration of the non-cellular elements of the 

 tissues corresponds in every respect to that of the cells. The tume- 

 faction, the amorphous and homogeneous, glassy transparency, 

 are alike in both. This we may see in structureless membranes, 

 intercellular and interstitial substances of all kinds. Were addi- 

 tional evidence needed in support of our proposition that amy- 

 loid degeneration is really an infiltration, we should find it in 

 the uniformity of its effects on structures which are so far apart 

 from one another in the histological series. But the view 



