MORBID ANATOMY 



325 



alcoholic material and gave expression to the belief that the 

 disease was caused by a fungus. Fish, in 1896, found a 

 fungus embedded in the diseased tissue. He did not name it 

 neither did he obtain it in pure cul- 

 ture, but his illustrations are very 

 clear in showing the existence of 

 the fungus. Fish gives in detail 

 the methods he employed. It is to 

 his work that we are indebted for 

 the more careful description of the 

 morbid changes. Fig. 80. A piece from the 



lip of an affected horse, show- 

 § 248. Morbid anatomy. As T-"g several diseased foci 

 a rule the lesions are near the (^i^^)- 

 surface. Where the diseased portion has become well de- 

 veloped there is usually a more or less complete detachment 

 of the central inflammatory growth from the surrounding 

 tissue. This nodular or "kunker" growth may vary in its 

 density according to the stage of its development. During 

 the early stages it is soft and easily cut ; later it becomes 

 firmer and ultimately assumes a hard or "gritty" character. 



In cutting sections it is generally the exception to cut 

 through the nodule or kunker evenly and to have it retain its 

 proper relations with the other parts. Even if successful in 

 cutting, the nodule drops out after some of the other processes. 

 In the specimens examined the lesions were confined entirely 

 to the skin and subcutaneous tissue ; no traces of muscular or 

 glandular structure were observed. Around the central por- 

 tion of the inflammatory growth there is a zone of leucocytes 

 of the mononuclear and polynuclear varieties, the latter pre- 

 dominating. They are embedded in an abundant stroma of 

 connective tissue which is in a greater or less stage of degen- 

 eration. The central portion of the zone is in some cases very 

 closely packed with the leuococytes, while toward the peri- 

 phery they are more loosely arranged and cause a marked 

 irregularity of the margin from their uneven drifting into the 

 tissue beyond. There is generally one and perhaps more 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



