192 



Retrogressive Processes. 



probable, too, that the swelling of the cells is referable to an ex- 

 cessive presence of fluid, a cellular dropsy.] 



Functional disturbances are occasioned by cloudy swelling, well 

 seen in the diminished contractile power in muscle. It is a repara- 

 ble process (recognizable in renal disease) provided the toxic sub- 

 stances which occasioned the protoplasmic fault are removed. 



Anatomically organs which are affected by albuminous degenera- 

 tion are usually less transparent than normally because of the 

 turbidity of their cellular constituents, are more or less grayish or 

 clay-colored, dry, friable, soft, and look as if they had been scalded 

 or cooked. 



The condition under discussion is very distinctly met in the psoas and 

 thigh muscles of the horse in myopathic hemoglobinuria, in the myocar- 

 dium in various infectious diseases (as pleuropnuemonia, tetanus), in the 

 liver and kidneys in phosphorus poisoning. 



The Fatty Changes. 



The presence of fat in the tissues is a physiological condition 

 depending in variable measure upon the nutrition brought about by 

 storage of the fat directlv derived from the food or formed within 





a 



Fig. 24. 



Fatty infiltration of liver cells; a. normal hepatic cell; b-e, various stages of 

 development of fatty irflltralion; X 600. (After Thoma. ) 



the cells from the carbohydrates and albumens. Deposition of fat is 

 especially seen in the subcutaneous, submucous and subserous con- 

 nective tissue, in intermuscular septa and in the glandular epithelium 

 of the liver, mammary gland, sebaceous glands, and also in dogs 

 and cats in the renal epithelium. The affected cells show the 

 presence of fat as either large or small droplets ; and may either 

 have normal nuclei, with the cellular volume varying in size with the 

 amount of fat present {fat cells, fatty infiltration), or structural 

 changes are evident, which indicate a cellular destruction {fatty 

 degeneration, fatty metamorphosis). In this latter case the fat is 

 frequently found in innumerable luinute. highly refractile globules, 



