407 



observe the process of disappearance of the striations. The 

 muscle is reproduced in fig. 104. In the lower region of the 

 muscle the spiral striations are still visible, as heavily staining 

 thickenings of the fibrillae, and are still, to all appearances, 

 quite normal. In the upper part of the muscle the striations 

 have entirely disappeared. In their place the whole muscle 

 is filled with a fine dust of disintegrating striated material 

 which is being- thrown in a shower of particles, at first sight 

 resembling bacteria,, into the blood stream. Some of the 

 striations in the individual sarcomeres are still intact, and 

 may be arranged apparently quite normally, successively 

 along a fibril. Others, already shortening, lie in the inter- 

 stitial substance, where they are quickly rounded off, and by 

 the time they reach the blood stream, are seen simply as 

 minute rounded globules, evidently undergoing solution in 

 the blood plasma. The striated substance has not been 

 pressed out at the end of the fibril ; it seems to burst its way 

 through in each sarcomere, apparently in the region of junc- 

 tion of successive sarcomeres ("Krause's Membrane"). 



This loss of material causes a considerable shrinking of 

 the contractile substance within its sarcolemma. 



At other times, the muscles do not lose their staining 

 reaction ; on the contrary, though their striations disappear, 

 the fibrillae (?) stain quite strongly, and it is seen that the 

 striated substance, instead of forcing its way through the 

 muscle sheath, has now spread itself along the fibrillae. Tlie 

 latter process appears to be much the commoner of the two. 

 Exactly what determines which of the two processes should 

 occur I am quite unable to say. 



Degeneration of the muscle fibre now continues; the 

 sarcoplasm becomes granulated and develops, in places, 

 rounded globules. Quite frequently these globules absorb 

 a granule .into their middle, which may give them the appear- 

 ance of minute nucleated cells. Such a condition has already 

 been described in the degenerating integument al cells. The 

 sarcolemma may have become strongly wrinkled. 



As a result of the degeneration of the interstitial sub- 

 stance the fibrillae become pressed close together. Leucocytes 

 now penetrate the sarcolemma and a phagocytosis of the inter- 

 stitial substance commences. A 'considerable part of it, how- 

 ever, undergoes chemical disintegration, being cast into the 

 body cavity Xs^arge round globules, which are not to be con- 

 fused with globules from the fat-body (fig. 110). 



As a result of this process the fibrillae are set free, and 

 falling apart, spread out a little, producing structures of 

 very characteristic appearance (fig. 110). Sometimes, it would 

 seem, several fibrillae cluster together, and the muscle is 



1 



