资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Degeneration \De*gen`er*a"tion\, n. [Cf. F.
   d['e]g['e]n['e]ration.]
   1. The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having
      become worse; decline; degradation; debasement;
      degeneracy; deterioration.

            Our degeneration and apostasy.        --Bates.

   2. (Physiol.) That condition of a tissue or an organ in which
      its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a
      substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure;
      as, fatty degeneration of the liver.

   3. (Biol.) A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of
      any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or
      organs; hereditary degradation of type.

   4. The thing degenerated. [R.]

            Cockle, aracus, . . . and other degenerations. --Sir
                                                  T. Browne.

   {Amyloid degeneration}, {Caseous degeneration}, etc. See
      under {Amyloid}, {Caseous}, etc.

Caseous \Ca"se*ous\, a. [L. caseus. Cf. {Casein}.]
   Of, pertaining to, or resembling, cheese; having the
   qualities of cheese; cheesy.

   {Caseous degeneration}, a morbid process, in scrofulous or
      consumptive persons, in which the products of inflammation
      are converted into a cheesy substance which is neither
      absorbed nor organized.