276 CIECULATORY APPARATUS. 



yet the fibres gave way rather than allow themselves to be 

 stretched. There were numerous ecchymoses under both peri- 

 cardium and endocardium, which were probably due to great 

 disturbances in the circulation through the muscle ; for the vessels 

 were all empty, the lack of blood certainly contributing in some 

 measure to the striking loss of colour. 



§ 241. The results of microscopical examination were every- 

 where the same ; the interior of the muscular fibres was occupied 

 by a finely-granular deposit, not uniformly distributed, but 

 forming little fusiform aggregations round the nuclei ; it might 

 be regarded as " increased protoplasm." I have never seen a 

 more pregnant illustration of Virchow's "parenchymatous in- 

 flammation." ]\Ioreover the muscular fibres collectively were 

 broken up ])y transverse clefts into short, oblong fragments, an 

 appearance which is not unusual in the pathological histology of 

 striped muscle. It must always be regarded as due to mechanical 

 rupture. I have assured myself that similar appearances may 

 readily be produced in the muscular fibres of the rabbit by forcible 

 extension. In the present instance we are at no loss to find a 

 cause for such extension, and it may be inferred that the rigid 

 and infiltrated state of the fibres would make them all the more 

 liable to be torn across in this way. It is self-evident also that 

 these minute lacerations must impair the functional power of 

 a muscle quite as much as the most extensive ruptures. 



§ 242. Apart from the difiiise, parenchymatous form of myo- 

 carditis, certain appearances in the muscular substance of the 

 heart are usually regarded as "results of myocarditis," without 

 our having any adequate knowledge of the chain of phenomena 

 which lead up to them ; these are : abscess, and fibroid patch of 

 the heart. The former of these I will describe at once : leavincf 

 the latter for the chapter on Chronic Endocarditis. 



D. Abscess of the Heart. 



§ 243. A circumscribed portion of the muscular substance, 

 from the size of a pea to that of a bean, rarely larger than this, 

 but occasionally as big as a walnut — is found to be deficient ; its 

 place is taken by a tolerably thick pulp of a yellowish-grey or 

 dirty-grey colour. This pulp consists, apart from numerous 

 pus-corpuscles, mainly of the debris of disintegrated muscular 



