STARVATION OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL TISSUES. 67 
be distended with material of a yellow colour and containing 
Fig. 6. — Reticular tissue replacing the deep layer of epidermis in a case of 
starvation, x 180. 
numerous refractive granules (fig. 5, b & c). The connective- 
tissue Corpuscles appear empty and shrunken, and together with 
their connecting filaments are in some cases studded with bright 
granules. The amount of blood in the vessels is very small, the 
current is very feeble, and the corpuscles appear to escape from 
the vessels with abnormal readiness. Many vascular loops 
remain entirely empty for considerable periods at a time, and in 
others isolated corpuscles slowly follow one another at wide 
intervals. Almost all the corpuscles are studded with large 
granules and globules of oil, and many of them are quite bleached 
and colourless. Some in process of distintegration can only be 
recognised by means of the characteristic arrangement of the oil 
globules which they contain, and free oil globules afford evidence 
of the complete destruction of others. Alcohol and ether pro- 
duced their ordinary effects on the granule cells, and prolonged 
application of the same reagents showed that the yellow matter 
and granules with which the sub-epidermal cells were filled was 
also of an oily nature. The granules first vanished, and the 
contents of the cells then gradually escaped as large yellow 
globules, which gradually dissolved and disappeared. The coarse 
granules in the nuclei of the outer layer of epidermis seemed to 
be little, if at all, alOfected by the reagents. 
Numerous careful examinations of specimens in all stages of 
starvation afforded results substantially in accordance with those 
just recorded, variations in degree of change being naturally 
present in accordance with the varying periods of starvation. 
The phenomenon which presented itself most conspicuously 
and frequently at first was an increase in the number of the 
granule cells. This increase cannot be ascribed to mere accumu- 
lation of the cells formed in normal proportion, but failing to 
undergo complete transformation, for — 1st, the increase occurs 
