DISEASES OP APONEUROSES 251 



to be replaced. Here the treatment consists in preventing^ 

 further progress of the degenerative changes, by producing a 

 compensatory hypertrophy of the contractile elements still 

 present. The best results in cases of recent atrophy are intra- 

 muscular injections of a sterile, saturated, aqueous, ISTaCl solu- 

 tion. In chronic cases, injections of an aqueous, saturated 

 solution of bichloride of mercury gives excellent results ; in 

 the latter instance excessive swelling, which occasionally fol- 

 lows it, is controlled by internal doses of potassium iodide. 

 Injections of turpentine are often followed by violent symp- 

 toms and are best omitted. 



DISEASES OF APONEUROSES. 



What r6le do the diseases of aponeuroses play in sv/rgery f 



They play a very important part, giving rise to long-lived 

 fcutlsB when undergoing purulent changes ; they act as a 

 support to the muscles which they cover, and when torn a so- 

 called muscular hernia is the result. In cattle, dislocation of 

 the biceps femoris is at times the result of an aponeurotic 

 rupture. Having a limited blood and nerve supply, and 

 being composed of fibrous tissue, they are very liable to 

 necrosis, their vitality being small. Their structure itself 

 does not render them liable to inflammatory processes ; thus 

 they act as guards against contiguous inflammations to the 

 muscles below or above them, but this very firmness also 

 Causes them to permit septic inflammatory processes to become 

 ^used, phlegmonous processes spreading readily in the 

 space formed between the aponeuroses, which space is termed 

 the subfacial space, and any inflammatory process taking 

 place in this subfacial space is known as subfacial cellulitis. 

 Otherwise the aponeurosis is actively concerned in the circur 



