On a Form of Degeneration of Striated Muscle Met with in the Uvula

There is but little literature descriptive of the microscopic morbid anatomy of the uvula. This is true especially of the condition known as relaxed or elongated uvula. Inman s in 1852 described the uvula in this condition as being " very firm and almost fibrous in the interior, covered with ordinary mucous membrane, which was not hypertrophied. On making sections and teasing with needles, the structures were found to consist of groups of large cells, 1/250 inch in diameter, studded with an immense number of granules." These he supposed to be altered cells from the mucous glands, bound together by strong areolar tissue. " Throughout this tissue were interspersed numerous muscle fibres, arranged in bundles, and but few of the fibres had the characteristics of voluntary muscle. Very few were striated; all of them seemed to be composed of an outer membrane and an inner substance, closely resembling fibrin. I t was homogeneous, yellow, divided irregularly into fragments by transverse