PART II.] Essentially a Degeneration of Fatty Tissues and not Parasitic. 353 



bottle in which they were preserved. On careful examination they appeared to be 

 mainly, if not wholly, confined to the surfaces of the sections, as in no instance could 

 it be clearly ascertained that they were present in freshly exposed portions of the 

 tissues. As a rule, they appeared to be quite loose in the softened gelatinous matter 

 of the degenerated tissues, but here and there they seemed to be entangled amongst, 

 or attached to filaments of, connective tissue. Their intimate nature will be described 

 farther on, but it may in the meantime be stated that they showed no signs of con- 

 taining any fungal elements, or of being in any way related to such bodies ; and that 

 we are strongly inclined to believe that the number of them present in the specimen 

 increased whilst it remained in our hands. 



CHAPTER IV. 



PHYSICAL CHARACTERS AND RELATION TO SURROUNDING TISSUES OF THE MORBID PRODUCTS 

 USUALLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE PALE VARIETY OF THE AFFECTION. 



Having now given some examples of the materials illustrative of this form of the 

 disease which we have examined, and which have formed the basis for our views 

 regarding its nature and causation, we may next proceed briefly to state what these 

 views are. We shall confine our attention at present to it, and leave the question of 

 its relation to the other variety to be discussed at a subsequent page. We have, as 

 the above illustrative cases may serve to show, totally and absolutely failed to identify 

 the presence of any fungal or other parasitic elements in any of the specimens of the 

 disease which we have examined, and we believe that we have good grounds for 

 denying the necessary coincidence, and consequently much more the causative con- 

 nection of the presence of any j)arasitic organisms at all with the morbid changes 

 present. 



We have studied very various stages of the disease, and in all alike has there 

 been an absence of any demonstrable parasites, but more than this, we have been 

 able to trace out a series of modifications of the elements of the normal tissues 

 terminating in lesions and degenerations which are quite capable of accounting for all 

 the appearances present in the most advanced stages, and which therefore render the 

 assumption of the essential agency of a parasite not merely unnecessary, but even 

 inadmissible. Why this degeneration should occur, and why it should be specially 

 localised in the extremities, we cannot say, but we believe that we have good grounds 

 for the assertion that this variety of the disease primarily is essentially a degeneration 

 of the fatty tissues independent of the local presence or influence of any parasites 

 whatever. 



In a very early stage of the disease, as for instance in Specimen IV (page 349), 

 we found mere alterations in the normal fat, and in more advanced cases we have 



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