mental investigations, as respecting the relative value of the various materials used for the clothing of soldiers. The following are the conclusions at which Dr. Coulier has arrived: 1. The colour of the clothing has but little apparent influence on the loss of heat. 2. Every fabric is capable of absorbing, in the latent state, a certain quantity of hygrometric water. This quantity is considerable in woollen material, less so in hempen fabric, and still less so in cotton. This absorption occurs without immediate loss of heat to the human body. 3. The colour of the fabrics has a great influence upon the absorption of solar heat; and it is sufficient, whatever else may be the nature of the clothing, to modify conveniently the external surface of the clothing, to gain the advantages gained by white materials when exposed to the intense heat of the sun.Journal de la Physiologie, Janvier, 1858. On Anders, a Disease communicable from the Bovine Species to Man, and probably from one Human Being to another.-In the provinces of Limousin and Auvergne there is, according to M. Lemaistre of Limoges, a disease among horned cattle, which has the name, in the former province, of endaï, and in the latter of anders. The appearances in cattle differ somewhat from those in man. In horned cattle the first sign of the disease is a pimple of the size of a grain of wheat; this discharges a reddish yellow fluid, which hardens into a crust somewhat like impetigo. This scab is easily raised, and the skin beneath is dry, tumid, and somewhat wrinkled. Round the first other pimples appear; they do not suppurate, but dry up and desquamate. The ring thus formed has a greyish white colour; it goes on increasing by the formation and desquamation of fresh pimple, and destroys the hair in its course. Several rings may exist in the same animal, in various stages; they rarely exceed a five-franc piece in size. The eruption is attended with much itching; it is mostly confined to the head, face, and neck, and almost always to one side. Each ring of eruption passes through its stages in about a month; but a succession of them may reappear during a considerable time. The disease is generally more obstinate in winter than in summer. In recovery the skin remains bare for some time, but at last the hair grows gradually. The disease is purely local, and is popularly believed to be contagious among cattle, in support of which belief several instances are adduced. A young animal is more liable to the disease than an old one if a cow has anders, the calf will inevitably be affected. Nothing satisfactory seems to be known of the treatment. In man, M. Lemaistre has not seen the eruption in its earliest stage. When fully developed, it appears at a distance as a bright red round patch, slightly projecting above the skin, not exceeding a five-franc piece in size. On close examination it is found to consist of small red pimples, slightly desquamating on the surface; they are generally redder towards the circumference of the patch than in the centre. There is much itching in the parts affected towards evening. It is altogether local, and principally confined to the face, fore-arms, and backs of the hands. It lasts from one to several months, and always ends in recovery. In some instances the appearance of the eruption has been traceable to contact with the animals so affected: in others this evidence has been wanting, and the disease has rather appeared to have been communicated from one human being to another. In the treatment, sulphur-bath appears to have been most useful; the local application of nitrate of silver produced only a transient effect.-L'Union Médicale, 26 Janvier, 1858. QUARTERLY REPORT ON PATHOLOGY AND MEDICINE. By EDWARD H. SIEVEKING, M.D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Physician to, and Lecturer on Enormous Cyst in the Brain, proceeding from the Pituitary Body. By Dr. F. A. ZENKER, Professor of Pathological Anatomy in Dresden. (Archiv für Path. Anat., Band xii. Hefte 4 and 5.) A GIRL, aged six, died in the hospital at Dresden with symptoms of hydrocephalus, which had followed a "nervous fever" nine months previously. The cranium was thin throughout, translucent at many points, and the different bones easily separable at the sutures; numerous small warty exostoses were found at the inner surface after removing the dura mater. The surface of the hemispheres was flattened. On separating the hemispheres, the corpus callosum was seen raised up, convex, and fluctuating; the lateral ventricles much distended, and containing in their posterior halves a large quantity of colourless serum. The anterior portion of the ventricles was lifted up by a tense cyst of an irregularly oval form, of the size of a hen's egg on the right, of a duck's egg on the left side; the cyst extended from before and below, upwards and backwards. The thin but firm walls of the cyst showed a smooth shining surface, traversed by injected vessels of a brownish hue, owing to the contents; at the front of the right hemisphere the cyst projected almost to the surface. On raising the anterior lobes of the brain, the cyst showed itself occupying the sella turcica, from which it could be easily detached. The cavity of the sella was hollowed out to the extent of a hazel-nut, but nowhere was there a trace of the pituitary body. The infundibulum was also wanting. The different portions of the cyst, at first sight appearing to form three different cysts, intercommunicated in the median line, at the anterior portion of the third ventricle. It contained a watery, dark reddish-brown, turbid fluid, containing blood-corpuscles, dark glomeruli, fat, cholesterin; but no cells. Three Cases of Infantile Apoplexy. By Joseph H. WYTHES, M.D. The first of these three cases occurred in a child, aged three, found dead in bed one morning, after having the day before complained of pain in the left ankle, supposed to have been the result of a sprain. The wrists and ankles were strongly contracted, and the left leg, arms, and back purple; the left leg slightly swollen. An extravasation of blood, perhaps half a fluid ounce, was found between the cranium and dura mater. The membranes were much injected, and there was a large clot at the posterior part of the "septum." The membranes in many places were strongly adherent. There was an appearance of blood infiltrated in the posterior lobes, particularly of the right side; and there was a coagulum in the right ventricle. In the second case, a boy, aged three months, death also supervened suddenly, without premonitory symptoms. When seen by Dr. Wythes, a few hours later, he was cold; the hands and feet contracted, particularly those of the left side; the mouth slightly drawn on one side; and the whole posterior surface purple. The vessels of the arachnoid and pia mater were considerably congested, and the whole cerebral tissue softened to the consistency of melted butter. A little serum was observed at the base of the left hemisphere of the cerebrum, but nothing abnormal in the ventricles; the membranes of the cerebellum and medulla oblongata were strongly congested. The other viscera were healthy. We should be disposed to doubt the propriety of terming this a case of apoplexy; not so, however, the third. The third occurred in a child, aged three months, who was found dead in bed. The muscles of the hands and feet were much contracted; foam issuing from the mouth and nose. Face purple purple congestion of the skin of the back and limbs. The membranes of the brain healthy, but its substance much congested. On slicing it seemed full of bloody dots. A small clot of blood was found in each ventricle; lungs congested; a serous effusion in the pericardium; liver large; other organs healthy. On Amblyopia and Amaurosis, in connexion with Bright's Disease of the Kidneys. By Dr. A. WAGNER. (Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie, Band xii. Hefte 2 and 3.) The existence of definite changes in the retina has been shown by Türk and others to accompany the amaurotic condition which sometimes occurs as a complication of Bright's disease. Dr. Wagner has within four years met with eighteen cases in which such changes were detected; the total number of cases of Bright's disease observed during the same period being 157. Having discovered material alterations after death in the retina of a patient who had not complained of any defect of vision during life, Dr. Wagner frequently examined the eyes of patients labouring under Bright's disease with the ophthalmoscope. Three times he discovered changes in the retina which were not so serious as to cause a derangement of vision. In three other cases the patients complained of nebulous sight, while the ophthalmoscope showed derangement in the amount of blood in the internal membranes of the eyes; and once, small extravasations in the retina. In ten cases there were demonstrable pathological changes in the eye, with more or less severe intermittent or persistent nebulosity of vision; in one case only was the blindness complete, and lasted to the time of death. The cases are detailed with great minuteness, but we must confine ourselves to a brief statement of the general summary. The external examination of the eyes yielded no definite results of impor tance. The ophthalmoscope showed the lens and vitreous bodies to be normal, except that in one case there was a trifling and temporary opacity of the latter. The main deviations were seen in the choroid and retina. In the early stages of the morbid process there was hyperemia (arterial or venous) of the retina alone, or of the choroid, conjoined with smoky opacity of the fundus of the eye. This fuliginous opacity commences at the papilla of the optic nerve, and extends peripherically over the inner surface of the globe; it occupies the retina, the vessels of which seem to lie above the opacity; the author believes it to be due to an exudation into the retina. At a later stage the opacity increased, while the vessels diminished, and appeared to become obliterated. Punctated and larger extravasations, and white or yellowish spots of irregular but sharp outline, were also perceived, generally in the vicinity of the papilla of the optic nerve. The yellow spots are different from those which are found in selerotico-iriditis resulting from atrophy of the choroid. In eight cases the eyes were examined after death; the yellow spots seen with the ophthalmoscope, were then resolved into dull white patches, in which the retina was thickened and indurated. The papilla of the optic nerve was found prominent, owing to an opaque white deposit; the vessels were, as shown by the ophthalmoscope, either subjacent to or upon the opacities and extravasations. The morbid product was shown by the microscope mainly to occupy the retina, and to consist of three different elements:-1. Fine dark molecular granules, soluble in ether, and probably fat. 2. Shining, faintly coloured granular globules, also soluble in ether, probably ganglionic cells in a state of fatty degeneration. 3. Rhomboidal structural flakes, unchanged by reagents, probably indurated fibrin. The red spots in the retina were invariably proved to be exuded blood. The optic nerve, whenever examined, was found to be normal. An Epidemic of Spinal Congestion, observed at Niort. By Dr. GAUNÉ. (Arch. Géné., Jan. 1858.) An epidemic of spinal congestion and meningitis made its appearance in September, 1856, in the foundling asylum for females at Niort, which is remarkable both on account of its course and its termination. With the exception of one, there were no cephalic symptoms, while a cure was effected in all. Nineteen were attacked, ten of which the author regarded as congestion, nine as decidedly inflammatory. It appears that there are sixty-five girls in the establishment, varying from six to twenty-one years; the nineteen who were attacked were all seized between the 10th September and 6th October, and, excepting one, were all cured by the 8th December. The affection came on suddenly in some, in others it was preceded by formication, heaviness of the lower extremities, and general malaise, symptoms which lasted from twenty-four to forty-eight hours; the intellect was unimpaired, excepting in the solitary case in which the head was involved; all of the patients lost the power of motion; and nearly all had severe pains in the course of the spinal column, which were increased by movement and by pressure; in three the dorsal muscles were so rigid as to constitute actual ophisthotonos, in two others the rigidity existed in a lower degree. Some febrile movement was detected in nearly all. Those in whom the disease amounted to meningitis kept their bed from fifty to seventy-five days; those affected with congestion, for fifteen to forty days. The treatment was antiphlogistic; consisting in general bloodletting wherever feasible; the application of leeches and cupping-glasses on the spinal column; sedatives and purgatives internally, and in three, tartaremetic in large doses. No spinal cause was traceable to which the epidemic could be attributed; no alteration of any kind had taken place in the mode of living or regimen of the girls, so that the medical men who were consulted on the subject were, with Dr. Gauné, compelled to attribute it to the influence of changes of temperature. The author gives four of the cases in detail; the following is an abridgment of one of these; it is one of those called meningitis, between which and the congestive cases, the only difference is one of intensity:-Julia, aged fifteen, of a good constitution, was suddenly seized, on the 21st September, while menstruating, with numbness of the lower extremities, inability to stand, and pains in the lumbar region of the spinal column, increased by pressure; pulse eighty-six, full; tongue normal; fair appetite. Sixteen leeches were applied to the thighs, and mustard poultices to the feet; an antispasmodie draught was administered internally; no benefit being obtained, the patient was bled three days after; on the 28th, leeches were re-applied to the lumbar region of the column, opiates being given from time to time. On the 1st October, the fever continued; the patient could not move without severe pain; and the legs, though preserving their sensibility, had lost all power of motion. Tartar-emetic was now prescribed internally, with narcotic frictions along the column. From this date improvement commenced; on the 3rd, the opisthotonos had almost entirely disappeared, some movement returned in the lower extremities, the fever ceased, and the appetite was restored. The tartrate of antimony was continued up to the 4th October, from which date the treatment consisted in the occasional repetition of counterirritation and purgatives, and on the 15th November the patient was discharged cured, having been fifty-seven days in the infirmary. Excepting that the treatment was less severe, and the disease of less duration, the congestive were the same as the inflammatory cases; so that it is unnecessary to give the details of one of the former. On Errors of Diagnosis in Diseases of the Heart. By Professor FORGET. (L'Union Médicale, Dec. 3rd, Dec. 5th, and Dec. 8th, 1857). If difficulties of diagnosis were more frequently dwelt upon than they are, the advances of medical science would be greater; at present the formula of books too often mislead the student, and induce in him either carelessness of observation or mistrust in his own powers, because the facts that come before him are too frequently at variance with what he is directed to hear and to see. The author of the present series of papers points out the difficulties that occasionally envelop the determination of cardiac lesions; more particularly when a bellows-murmur is not to be detected in disease of the aortic and mitral valves. Professor Forget gives the details of four cases which have recently occurred in his own practice, and in which the diagnosis was incomplete owing to this circumstance. We subjoin the heads of these cases:-1. A man, aged fifty-six, admitted April 17th, 1857, of a strong constitution, had acute articular rheumatism twenty years previously; cough for several years; habitual dyspnoea for six months, followed by progressive general anasarca. Expression anxious, face swollen and cyanosed, extensive oedema; cough, much dyspnea, mucous expectoration streaked with blood; thorax sonorous, general sibilant and mucous râles, varying in size. Heart-beat feeble, without blowing murmurs. Pulse small, soft, ninety. Veins of neck dilated. Digestion normal; urine acid, non-albuminous. The patient at first improved under treatment, but on the thirteenth day double pneumonia supervened, and six days later he expired. The post-mortem revealed old pleuritic adhesions, straw-coloured serum with albuminous flakes in the right cavity; both lungs partly carnified, red, and friable; the bronchi of deep red, and filled with sanguinolent mucus. The whole pericardium adherent; the heart large (volumineux), with black, copious coagula in the right cavities; a pale one in the left ventricle; the aortic valves ossified, thickened, malformed, causing narrowing and insufficiency; the same was the case with the mitral valves, which were much thickened, so as to form a narrow fibrous ring, causing narrowing and insufficiency. Dr. Forget points out that the error committed was in assuming the source of the venous stasis to be in the lungs, whereas it originated in the left side of the heart; the diagnosis was, however, qualified by the addition, that a bruit de soufflet might be absent owing to the "feebleness of the heart not sufficing for its production." The left side of the heart was not dilated, owing to the aortic and mitral valves both being narrowed, so that the ventricle did not receive more blood that it could force on. 2. A female, aged fifty-two, admitted 11th May, 1857. The following case contrasts strongly with the preceding one, because, although the symptoms were the same, we shall see that the lesions differed materially. Average constitution, subject to difficult breathing from her infancy, cough for thirty years, increased for three months. For six weeks adema of feet, which has now spread over the rest of the body. Face cyanosed, considerable anasarca; abundant viscid mucous expectorations, with fine moist râles scattered over both lungs; feeble impulse of heart; beat irregular, no abnormal sounds; small, feeble, irregular pulse. Digestion normal; no albumen. Diagnosis, pulmonary obstruction, consecutive dilatation of right side of heart, without positive signs of lesion of the left side; possible latent valvular lesion. Gradual increase of symptoms. Death on the 26th May. Autopsy: old pleuritic adhesions; lungs gorged with blood and serum; the bronchi red, and full of mucus. A few black dry tubercular deposits at the apices. No hypertrophy or dilatation of the left side of heart; the aortic and mitral valves normal; dilatation of the right side of the heart. The supra-renal capsules in a state of fatty degeneration; and in the parenchyma of the right one were seven or eight small uric acid calculi. 3. Female, |