CLOUDY SWELLING 331 



formation goes on in muscle-cells under pathological conditions, 

 this explanation seems to have considerable value. The results 

 of some preliminary experiments that I have performed support 

 this hypothesis. 1 



Summary. Putting all these facts together, we may look 

 upon the term cloudy swelling as applying to many different 

 sorts of processes which may be caused by many different factors, 

 the common features being the precipitation or the coagulation 

 of part of the dissolved cell proteids (often with the separation 

 of the intracellular fat from the proteids, so that it becomes 

 microscopically visible) and the imbibition of water. 



"Hydropic degeneration" may be properly considered as 

 differing from cloudy swelling chiefly in the excessive promi- 

 nence of the absorption of water. 



1 Muscles showing the reaction of degeneration have been analyzed by 

 Eumpf and Schumm (Deut. Zeit. f. Neryenheilk., 1901 (20), 445), who found a 

 great increase in the fatty matter, which was about fifteen times the normal 

 amount. The muscle, deducting the fat, showed a loss of solid matter and an 

 increase of water ; sodium and calcium were increased, potassium decreased. 



