312 



THE TISSUES. 



may be produced by an excess of fatty elements in the food; espe- 

 cially if combined with inactive habits. This state of the organ is 

 directly produced in fowls, by keeping them quiet (hence a dark 

 place is better), and cramming them with oily food; as in produc- 

 ing the livers, of which to make the pate de foie gras. No such 

 connection is, however, known to exist between the food and fatty 

 degeneration of the other organs mentioned. 



6. Something very analogous to fatty degeneration also occurs in 

 arteries; being termed atheroma. It is a deposit in the middle coat 

 of the artery, and visible through the inner coat, of a pulpy dif- 

 fluent substance, and which has sometimes, therefore, been mis- 

 taken for pus. Some authors maintain, on insufficient grounds, it 

 is believed, that fibrine merely, is first deposited in consequence of 

 arteritis; and that atheroma is merely a fatty degeneration of the 

 fibrine, and not of the arterial coat itself. It consists principally 

 of fat-drops with crystals of cholesterine. Figs. 198 and 199 show 



Fig. 198. 



Fig. 199. 



Fig. 198. Early stage of atheroma. 



Fig. 199. Fatty granules with crystals of cholesterine from atheromatous deposits in the aorta 

 (Bennett.) 



its appearance in the early and in the advanced stage. It conforms 

 to the law of symmetry in a remarkable degree ; occurring gene- 

 rally in the two arteries of the same name at the same time, e. g. 

 the two iliacs, and the carotids. It is most common in the aorta, 

 and the divisions of it nearest the heart. 



7. Fat abounds in encephaloid cancer; being here also in the 

 form of drops. 



