SYPHILIS. 



133 



tomical character residing not in any marked deviation of the 

 gummatous tissue from the familiar types of inflammatory 



Fig. 41. 



^d}!k^^'^^ 



' ^% 



Syphilitic disease of the liver, a. Left lobe; h. Right lobe; 

 cc. Fibroid sheath which traverses the organ from the V. 

 portse to the ligamentum suspensorium and contains 

 gummata. f. 



growth, but rather in the circumscription of a more or less 

 spheroidal nodule in the midst of a larger deposit of newly- 

 formed embryonic tissue, a nodule which differs from the em- 

 bryonic tissues round it in the farther course of its metamor- 

 phoses. For while the latter undergo conversion into fibroid 

 tissue, forming a cicatrix characterised by a tendency to extreme 

 contraction (§ 93), the former, retaining the circular form of its 

 cells, and occasionally producing an anastomotic network of 

 corpuscles, undergoes a mucoid transformation of its intercellu- 

 lar substance. The main stress however must not be laid on 

 the 'production of mucous tissue, inasmuch as this is clearly a 

 more phase in a slow degenerative change. The cells grow 

 fatty ; their place is taken by round or stellate aggregations of 

 fat-granules, which appear to be capable of lasting as such for 

 long periods of time. The final result is a yellowish-white 

 romided nodule of a soft and elastic consistency, embedded in a 



