C. Cysts

With the exception of cysts which enclose entozoa, these growths are very rare in the muscular system. Even the large sized acephalocyst sacs are very seldom found. And this recalls the fact, that cancerous growths also are extremely uncommon in muscles, although a comparison of this sort leads to no result, inasmuch as muscles are rarely the seat of morbid growths of any kind.

D. Fibroid Tissue

Fibroid Tissue is found in muscles which remain indurated with callus after inflammation, and in those which are spasmodically contracted.

E. Bony Growths

Bony Growths (1,) not unfrequently exist in muscles in the form of calcareous concretions, which have been developed in the fibroid tissue just mentioned. In some few cases, whole muscles have been found thus ossified. Muscles sometimes contain also the cretaceous remains of pus, of tubercle, and of the shrunken sacs of the cysticercus and acephalocyst (echinococcus).

(2.) True bone is less frequently met with in muscles. When it occurs, it assumes a rounded form, or is flattened and elongated, but still rounded. Sometimes it is spongy, and sometimes of more compact structure. The drilling bone (Exercirknochen), as it is called, in the left deltoid muscle, is of this nature, and numerous other growths of the same kind are to be met with. In the museum at Vienna, a very large, egg-shaped, piece of bone is preserved, which was taken out of the biceps of a woman's left arm.

F. Tubercle

Primary tubercle scarcely ever occurs in the muscular system, least of all in the form of gray granulations. Even those inflammations of muscles which have been already mentioned as leading to tubercular deposition, and as connected with similar affections of bone, are, generally, secondary inflammations; they almost always occur in combination with tuberculosis of parenchymatous organs, and especially with already established tuberculosis of the lungs. Under similar circumstances, and according to my observations when phthisis already exists, inflammations now and then arise independently of diseased bone, in the interior of the bodies of different muscles: they furnish an exudation of tubercular nature, and as this breaks down, they give rise to the formation of a tubercular vomica in the muscle.

But muscles sometimes become the seat of tubercle and tubercular softening, in consequence of their vicinity to other affected organs; and this is especially the case with organic membranous muscles, particularly with the fleshy coat of the intestinal canal. The fact is seen in the muscles surrounding the thorax when there has been tubercular softening of the lung and pleura, in the muscular coat of the bowel beneath a tubercular ulcer of its mucous membrane, etc.

G. Cancer

In whatever form this disease presents itself, it is scarcely ever the primary cancerous affection in any muscle of animal life, except the tongue. One or more cancerous growths are almost always found elsewhere, and that in the muscular system is the secondary affection. Of those organs even which are entirely composed of organic muscular fibre, nearly the only one which is ever primarily attacked by cancer is the uterus; and it is the cervix and vaginal portion of the uterus, - the muscular development of which is in the unimpreg-nated state very subordinate to that of its body, - that is especially subject to the disease. But muscular tissue, is more frequently involved in the degeneration of adjoining organs affected with cancer, and to this secondary affection both animal and organic fibre is subject; the pectoral muscle, for instance, in cancer of the breast, and the muscular coat of the alimentary canal, in cases of cancer of the stomach or bowel.

The forms of cancer which are most frequently observed thus attacking the muscular system, are the fibrous and medullary.

A firmly fixed knotted tumor, inwoven with the muscular tissue, and sending out branches in all directions, is sometimes the distinguishing character of the fibrous kind of cancer; but more frequently, when the muscle is diseased in consequence of its proximity to some other affected organ, it produces a characteristic degeneration of the muscular tissue. This degeneration is mostly seen in cases of secondary disease of the pectoral muscle, or middle coat of the intestines, and it leads to the conversion of the muscular tissue into a white, fibrillated, reticular structure, in the interspaces of which a pale reddish, or yellowish-red substance resembling firm jelly is lodged. The muscular coats of organs, under such circumstances, are palpably increased in size. Degeneration of the same kind is observed not only in fibrous, but also in medullary cancer.

The medullary form is not unfrequently associated in muscles with a very extensive growth of cancer. It sometimes presents its genuine white character, sometimes that of melanosis; and it grows in rounded, circumscribed, encephaloid knots in one or in several muscles. When the muscle is diseased in consequence of the degeneration of adjoining organs, encephaloid matter seems to be infiltrated throughout it amongst the muscular fibres, some of which are blanched and others degenerated in the same manner as in fibrous cancer.

Like other structures, muscle sometimes resists for a long period the advance of large cancerous growths; it becomes thin and atrophied from the pressure and stretching, but undergoes no actual change of texture.

H. Entozoa

The entozoa which occur in the muscles of the human subject, are a. The echinococcus, which inhabits the acephalocyst. It is seldom met with. The sac is situated between the fibres, and forces them more or less asunder.

The cysticercus (Blasenschwanzwurm) is somewhat frequent. It is very often found in several or in most of the muscles, as well as in the heart of the same individual, and not very rarely in the brain too. The number existing in a single muscle, and in one individual, is sometimes quite extraordinary. The cysticercus seems to share with the trichina spiralis the remarkable character of being confined to voluntary muscles (muscles with transverse striae); the distinction is not perhaps so strictly marked as in the instance of the trichina, but it has been observed in several cases.

When the cysticercus dies, its tail-vesicle shrinks, and the contents become inspissated, and at length cretaceous. Chalky concretions enclosed in a thick cyst are often found in muscles, which are the remains of cysticerci.

r. The trichina spiralis is an entozoon which is strictly confined to the voluntary muscles. Upon its death it leaves an encysted chalky concretion behind.

I. Foreign Bodies

All kinds of extraneous bodies are introduced into muscles by natural or unnatural means, such as needles, bullets, fishbones, etc.