232 FATTY DEGENERATION. 



cular tissue may pass into a state of fibrous degene- 

 ration. 



In unstriped muscle a corresponding change is 

 noticed as the fibres advance in age. The young 

 fibre- cells consist almost wholly of contractile matter, 

 but the extremities which are attached to connective 

 tissue become gradually converted into fibrous ma- 

 terial, and the change continues until the entire fibre- 

 cell may be thus replaced, and is at last represented 

 by a passive fibre of connective tissue. 



211. Fatty degeneration. In this morbid condition 

 the contractile material in great part disappears, and 

 in its place oil granules and globules are found. 

 Fatty degeneration does not appear to be a conse- 

 quence of nerve paralysis, at least in the greater 

 number of instances. It runs its course in a shorter 

 period of time than the fibrous degeneration. It 

 occurs in unstriped muscle as well as in the striped 

 fibre, and can always be observed in the altered mus- 

 cular fibres of the uterus after parturition, and in the 

 tissues near the margin of the placenta towards the 

 end of the period of gestation. Fatty degeneration 

 often affects a great number of tissues in the same 

 individual. Nerves at the periphery and centre, 

 ganglion cells, capillaries, arteries, veins, connective 

 tissue, epithelium, cartilage, and even bone are not 

 unfrequently affected by it, as well as every kind of 

 muscular tissue. In many cases the fatty matter is 

 first seen near the bioplasm, and results from changes 

 taking place in the imperfectly developed formed 

 material, and in the bioplasm itself oil globules are 

 not unfrequently found. It is probable that the 

 morbid change is in some cases dependent upon prior 

 alterations in the composition of the blood, which 

 are themselves the consequence of improper assimila- 

 tion, or of the introduction into the organism of more 

 food than can be properly assimilated ; while in others 

 it seems to be due rather to some unusual changes in 



