What does the word degeneration mean?
-
-
1. Deterioration, sinking from a higher to a lower level of type. 2. A worsening of physical or mental qualities. 3. A retrogressive pathological change in cells or tissues in consequence of which the functioning power is lost and the living substance becomes converted into an inert mass.
-
Degeneratio, Notheusis, Nothia, from degener, 'unlike one's ancestors, ( de, and genua, generis, 'family,') Degeneracy, ( F.) Degeneration, Abatardissement. A change for the worse -degradation -in the intimate composition of the solids or fluids of the body. In pathological anatomy, degeneration means the change which occurs in the structure of an organ, when transformed into a matter essentially morbid; as a cancerous, or tubercular, degeneration. Degenerescence is, by the French pathologists, employed synonymously with Degeneration.
-
[ Latin] A lowering of the physical, mental, or moral qualities of an individual below the standard of his race or of his ancestry.
-
[ Latin] The conversion of a tissue from a higher to a lower or less functionally active form, either by a chemical transformation of the tissue itself( True d.) or by the deposition of abnormal matters in its substance without alteration of the latter( Infiltration). The Infiltrations are called Fatty, Calcareous, Uratic, Pigmentary, Glycogenic, and Amyloid( Albuminoid, Bacony, Lardaceous, Scrofulous, or Waxy), according as fat-globules, particles of calcium carbonate, crystals of sodium urate, or particles of pigment, glycogen, or amyloid material are deposited in or between the tissue-elements. The True ds comprise Cloudy swelling( or Albuminous or Granular or Parenchymatous d.), in which the cells, especially of the heart, liver, and kidney in infectious diseases and acute poisoning, become swollen, watery, and apparently granular; Hydropic d. ( Dropsical d.), in which cells become swollen and altered through imbibition of water, in oedema and inflammation; Fatty d., due to obstruction of the circulation and marked by a transformation of the tissue-elements into granular fat; Caseous d. ( Cheesy d., Caseation), affecting especially collections of pus and tuberculous deposits which are converted into dry, pulverulent, cheesy masses; Mucous d., in which the protoplasm of the cells or intercellular substance is converted into a gelatinous liquid containing mucin; Colloid a., in which there is a similar transformation, but in which no mucin is present; Hyaline d., in which fibrous hyaline material is formed at the expense of the tissues; Sclerotic d., a special form of hyaline d. occurring in connective-tissue structures and particularly the intima of arteries. In nerve-fibres a fatty d. ( Wallerian d., Secondary d.) occurs in all portions which have been deprived of their connection with the trophic centres. This d. is called ascending when it affects the portion of the nerve-tract lying between the site of the lesion and the higher centres; and descending when it affects the portion of the tract lying on the peripheral side of the lesion. The presence of secondary d. is shown by a loss of faradic and galvanic excitability. See Reaction of degeneration. Gray d. of the spinal cord, tabes dorsalis.
-
Each person working in the medical industry sometimes needs to know how to define a word from medical terminology. For example - how to explain degeneration? Here you can see the medical definition for degeneration. Medical-dictionary.cc is your online dictionary, full of medical definitions.