406 LECTURE XVI. 



bolical deposits are produced in remote parts (Fig. 73, 

 p. 242).* 



Only in this manner, by observing, namely, the earli- 

 est stages of the changes, is it possible to form certain 

 and practically useful opinions with regard to pathologi- 

 cal processes. Never ought one, basing one's opinion 

 flpon the difference of the processes in a clinical point 

 of view, to allow oneself to be induced to regard their 

 ultimate products as necessarily different. The most 

 violent inflammatory processes which run their course 

 in quite a short time, may have the same terminations 

 as those which, in other cases, are brought about more 

 slowly. 



It is not my intention to go through the series of the 

 different passive disturbances which may possibly arise 

 in the later stages of irritative conditions, in detail. 

 Else we should be able to discover analogous instances 

 in the history of nearly all degenerative atrophies. In 

 all cases we must discriminate between the conditions in 

 which a part becomes directly the seat of such a retro- 

 grade metamorphosis, and those in which it previously 

 underwent an active change. 



The description which I have given you of the fatty 

 processes directly applies to the class of calcifications. 

 If it be wished ta discriminate between ossification and 

 calcification, it is not sufficient to keep the ultimate re- 

 sult in one's eye. A part does not become true bone, 



* This theory of the detachment of fragments from the valves of the heart, and 

 of the consequent secondary occlusions (embolia) was propounded by me, with 

 illustrations from the histories of patients and the results of post-mortem examina- 

 tions (Archiv f. path. Anat. und Phys. vol. I., p. 134) as far back as 1847, or five 

 years before Dr. Kirkes, to whom the honour of this discovery is still generally 

 ascribed in England, published his papers on the subject. My observations con- 

 cerning the detachment of the thrombi in the veins were published a year earlier 

 than this, viz., in 1846, and I then hinted at the occurrence of the same process in 

 the arteries, although I did not give a full account of it until 1847. From a MIS. 

 Note by the Author. 



