But  a  similar  affection  may  exist  in  a  worse  form,  though  it  be  less
manifest :  worse,  because  the  degeneration  is  more  extensive  and  more
uniform  ;  and  less  manifest,  because  it  is  less  distinctly  visible  to  the
naked  eye,  and  must  be  recognised  by  the  touch  rather  than  by  the
unaided  sight.     The  whole  heart  feels  soft,  doughy,  inelastic,  unresist-
ing ;  it  may  be  moulded  and  doubled-up  like  a  heart  beginning  to  de-
compose long  after  death  ;  it  seems  never  to  have  been  in  the  state  of
rigor  mortis.     These  conditions  are  more  manifest  when  a  section  is  made
through  the  wall  of  the  left  ventricle.     Then,  if  the  wall  be  only  partly
cut  through,  the  rest  of  it  maybe  very  easily  torn,  as  if  with  separation
of  fibres  that  only  stick  together ;  and  the  cut  surface  of  the  wall  looks,
as  it  were,  lobulated  and  granular,  almost  like  a  piece  of  soft  conglo-
merate gland,  an  appearance  which  is  yet  more  striking  when  observed
with  a  simple  lens  of  about  half-an-inch  focus.     In  colour,  the  heart
has  not  on  its  surface,  much  less  on  its  section,  the  fall  ruddy  brown
of  healthy  heart,  a  colour  approaching  that  of  the  strong  voluntary
muscle,  but  is,  for  the  most  part,  of  a  duller,  dirtier,  lighter  brown,  in
some  parts  gradually  blending  with  irregular  marks  or  blotches  of  a
paler  fawn  or  dead-leaf  colour.
