An introduction to pathology and morbid anatomy / by T. Henry Green.

  • Green, T. Henry (Thomas Henry), 1841-1923
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to pathology and morbid anatomy / by T. Henry Green. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/584 (page 45)
    Respecting the post-mortem changes in other tissues—protoplasm generally not only coagulates, but tends to become finely granular after death. It sometimes increases in bulk, so that the cells look swollen, and in nucleated cells the nucleus often shrinks or entirely disappears. The cells ultimately break up into molecules of various sizes. In adipose tissue the cells diminish in size, owing to the escape of the fluid fat, which diftuses itself throughout the surround- ing structures. The fibres of connective tissue swell up, become opa(*iue, and ultimately liquefy. In nerve-fibres the white substance of Schwann coagulates and collects into small drops (myelin) within the neurilemma. Cartilage, bone, and hair resist the putrefactive process longer than any of the tissues, and are at least altered by it. CHAPTER II. NUTRITION IMPAIRED. INTRODUCTION.—It was shown in the preceding chapter that permanent arrest of nutrition in a part causes cessation of function— i. e. death. We must now consider morbid processes in wdiicli nutri- tion is more or less impaired, and proportionate diminution of vital energy the characteristic consequence. Nutrition may be impaired in tw^o ways: in quantity^ so that waste comes to be in excess of repair; or in quality^ either the food or the metabolism of the cell being abnormal. Excess of waste over repair leads simply to atrophy, or simple diminution in size of a part or of the wdiole body, whence results impairment of its functional powers. Alteration in the quality of the food or in the chemistry of the cell, on the other hand, may lead to degeneration of the cell-contents; some abnormal substance appears in the tissues, formed by metamorphosis o^the cell-protoplasm or deposited in the cells by the blood and not consumed. This, again, causes more or less impairment of the functions of the degenerate ele- ments. Both atrophy and degeneration must therefore be regarded as stages toward death, and in both cases the impairment of nutrition not uncommonly becomes so extreme that it amounts at certain spots to arrest and consequent death of the most affected cells. Several abnormal substances may appear in the tissues as results of their degeneration, and according as these substances are believed