Whatever may be the origin of the cheesy condition, the material presenting this appearance is liable to further changes, known as softening and calcification. The former event results from the soaking of the dead part with liquid, in consequence of which a detritus results. The softening usually begins at the oldest part of the cheesy mass, and advances toward the periphery. The sanatory evacuation of the emulsive detritus is permitted when a surface continuous with that of the external surface of the body is reached, as instanced by the escape of softened cheesy material from the lungs through a bronchus. The possibility of the complete removal of the dead mass is thus at hand, and an eventual obliteration of the resulting cavity may take place by an adhesive inflammation of its walls. The complete absorption of the cheesy material of an ischæmic necrosis may occur by the extension into the latter of a granulation-tissue from the periphery. Whenever cheesy appearances are found on surfaces, as the degenerated tubercles of mucous membranes or the circumscribed necroses in diphtheritic inflammation or in typhoid fever, healing may be accomplished by their detachment as sloughs, a clean ulcer being left. Cheesy material is frequently encapsulated--_i.e._ imbedded in a layer of dense connective tissue, a condition which indicates a local cessation of the process through which the cheesy appearances arose. The same may be said of the infiltration of the cheesy mass with earthy salts--calcification--an event which will again be referred to in connection with the consideration of the general subject. _Hyaline Degeneration, Fibrinous Degeneration, Croupous Metamorphosis._ Certain of the conditions now regarded as indicative of a coagulative necrosis or a hyaline degeneration were previously described by Wagner as the result of a croupous or fibrinous metamorphosis. According to this observer, the cell-contents were transformed, under certain circumstances, into a substance resembling externally clotted fibrin. The formation of croupous and diphtheritic membranes, especially of the larynx, pharynx, and trachea, was thus explained, also the hyaline casts of the kidney. {81} The results of this metamorphosis presented a hyaline appearance under the microscope, and the term hyaline degeneration is now applied more especially to indicate the production of microscopic changes, while the hyaline appearances visible to the eye are rather included under mucous, colloid, or amyloid metamorphoses.