Red Softening of the Brain

Abstract

The view is expressed that at the very moment of apoplexy, conditions pre-exist which, in further development, will determine whether softening is hemorrhagic or ischemic. Hemorrhagic softening is distinguished from ischemic by vasodilatation with stasis and takes place principally in the gray matter and nuclei of the base and cortex in cerebral areas still unaffected by necrotic alterations of the parenchyma. Nervous, chemical and mechanical factors may influence the detn. of the nature of the cerebral lesion.