This has been already adverted to as a heterologous product. As such it occurs frequently in the form of infiltration. False hypertrophy is for the most part cognizable at a glance from the alienation which the general characters of the organ have undergone. Very marked hypertrophies of this kind are found to aiFect the liver, and with rather less frequency the spleen and even the kidneys; presenting, in the instance of the two former, what is commonly termed hypertrophy, physconia, engorgement, etc. These manifest themselves in the shape of fatty liver, waxy liver, of albuminous, lardaceous infiltration of that viscus, of the spleen, of the kidneys, and they will be reconsidered under the head of heterologous growths. They not rarely attain to a very high grade, are always distinguished as being palpably based in a constitutional dyscrasis, and are, proportionately to the rapidity or slowness of their development, attended or unattended with pain.

To these hypertrophies, moreover, properly belongs the ultimate degeneration of hypertrophied and dilated glandular follicles into cysts.

Finally, we may here class all hypertrophies founded upon products of inflammation, so far as they consist in the adventitious development of a blastema foreign to the texture involved, and convertible into areolar and fibroid tissue.

Hypertrophy attacks one, or a few disconnected, but for the most part nearly kindred organs; or, again, an entire system - for example, the osseous, the lymphatic system. The general hypertrophy called poly-sarcia or corpulence, consists both in the excessive development of fat, and in extraordinary succulence of the soft tissues, more especially of the areolar.

Hypertrophied organs offer a variety of remarkable changes. The volume is usually augmented, - more obviously so in the case of false hypertrophies. Now and then the natural volume is retained, the failure of increase of volume being compensated for by augmented density of the organ, or some one anatomical constituent becoming hypertrophied at the expense of another one, which wastes in a corresponding degree. In hollow organs we distinguish between a simple hypertrophy with normal capacity, an excentrical with dilatation, and a concentrical with diminution of the cavity. In this last the volume of the organ may be augmented, or normal, or even diminished. Examples are afforded in hypertrophies of the heart, of the uterus, etc.

The weight of hypertrophied organs corresponds with their increase of volume and of density.

The shape always undergoes a change proportionate to the degree of the enlargement. Generally speaking, hypertrophied organs assume a certain roundness, losing their edges, their angles, and their flat surfaces. In the case of some organs, and of the liver in particular, the marked character of such disfigurement is not devoid of pathognomonic significance.

The color is, in true hypertrophy, the normal - only of deeper tint. Take, for example, the saturated red in true hypertrophy of muscular flesh, the saturated twofold coloration of nutmeg liver. In false hypertrophy, the coloration suffers various alterations.

The consistence of a hypertrophied organ is often unchanged, often increased, sometimes diminished. A remarkable degree of density and of resiliency characterizes hypertrophied muscle, more especially in the right ventricle of the heart; and, again, in hypertrophy of the spleen referrible to mechanical hyperemia, and unattended by obvious enlargement. The same observation applies to false hypertrophies, in particular to brawn-like infiltration of the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys. Fatty degeneration of the liver is marked by a diminution of consistence.

The bloodvessels of hypertrophied organs sometimes present a dilated calibre and thickened (hypertrophied) coats. This is especially perceptible in congestion and hypertrophy of long standing; not so, or at least not in a marked degree, in other cases. Does the accessory formation of new structural elements in the hypertrophied organ imply that of new bloodvessels likewise? Direct experience affords no information upon this point. In relation to the hypertrophy of vicariating organs, and of the lungs more particularly, it would be reasonable, where vicarious action really is in force, to take for granted the accessory formation of new capillaries. The nerves of hypertrophied organs are occasionally found considerably thicker than natural.