What is "caseous degeneration"

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.