In the straight tubes and in the collecting tubes the epithelium is sometimes detached in its entirety. Some of these canals are obliterated by granular cylinders or by accumulations of epithelial cells.
The vessels met with in the parenchyma of the kidney are always greatly distended, and sometimes they are torn, whence there results the formation of small foci of interstitial hæmorrhage. In many cases the extravasated blood also destroys the parenchyma.
(3) Action upon the Spleen, Heart, and Lungs.
In the spleen, Nowak merely found a little fatty degeneration, and only in cases in which the lesions in the liver and kidneys were very far advanced. The same applies to the muscular fibres of the heart. This organ exhibits, above all, hæmorrhagic infiltrations in its peripheral portion, rarely in its substance.
The lungs are the seat of more important lesions. We find in them a multitude of little infarcts. Around these the capillary vessels are extremely dilated, and the pulmonary vesicles have become very small.
All these lesions of the visceral organs strangely resemble those observed in the case of individuals who have died from yellow fever. This observation has been made by several scientists, among others by Sanarelli, and it is this perhaps that has suggested to some (Dyer, of St. Louis, R. Bettencourt, of São-Paulo[24]) the idea of treating—without much success, however—yellow fever by the antitoxin of venom.
(4) Action upon the Striated Muscles.
The changes in the striated muscles in places at which venom has been injected do not present any specific character. The muscular fibres already become necrosed half an hour after the injection; the diseased tissue becomes permeated with an albuminous mass rich in fibrin, and the blood is extravasated. A few hours later we observe, between the bundles of degenerate muscle fibres, polymorphous leucocytes. The number of these latter constantly increases, and attains its maximum after one or two days. The muscular nuclei become distorted, appear long or angular, and assume the aspect of myoblasts (sarcoblastic muscle cells). In the protoplasm of the myoblasts we frequently find particles of broken-down muscle, and globules of fat.
All these changes resemble those observed as the result of the action of a host of other muscle poisons, especially the irritant or caustic chemical substances.