Colloid Cyst in the Third Ventricle of the Brain, with Lipoma of the Choroid Plexus. Dr. H. Walmann, of Vienna, relates a case of the above affection, associated with hydrocephalus, atrophy, and softening of the lower part of the spinal cord, colloid cyst of the thyroid gland, and fatty state of the heart and kidneys, &c. The patient was a soldier, aged fifty-two, who had lived. freely, and who was paraplegic before death. In addition to the dilated condi tion of the ventricle, and wide separation of the optic thalami, there was found situated beneath the fornix, an oval cyst with thick walls, and of the size of a walnut, springing from the central choroid plexus, and surrounded by a very delicate transparent membrane-part of the arachnoid. It was connected with the "commissura mollis" also. The interior of the cyst consisted of a gum-: like tenacious yellowish-brown mass, and at its edges the growth was transparent and of a yellowish-grey look. It slightly occupied the third ventricle, The lipoma before spoken of the floor of which was softened and thinned.

was of the size of a bean, being soft and lobulated, and of a yellowish-white hue, and was attached to the right choroid plexus. On microscopic examination, there was found beneath the outer arachnoid covering an investment of areolar tissue half a line in thickness, and within this was a mass of colloid or gluelike material.

The tumour connected with the choroid plexus consisted of an areolar-tissue investment, and a mass of vascular connective tissue containing a vast number of fat-cells grouped together the vessels, the mass being continuous with the plexus. The affected portion of the spinal cord showed connective tissue-fibres, fat, and molecular material, along with many delicate nerve-fibres, the nervecells being beset with much fatty matter.

The author alludes to a case by Rokitansky of lipoma of the inner surface of the dura mater, and the ependyma of the ventricles; and to one by Meckel, of lipoma beneath the optic commissure, of which the preparation now exists in the museum of the Joseph's Academy at Vienna.

Ossified Lipoma of the Brain.-Dr. L. Benjamin, of Hamburgh,† relates a case of this nature. The patient died of diseased kidney, but had been para lysed on the right side, and was the subject of epilepsy. The left cerebral hemisphere was found to be very hardened, and a tumour resting on the right optic thalamus and slightly touching the corpus striatum was found, chiefly Occupying the right cerebral hemisphere. This tumour possessed an areolar investment, which was firmly connected with a fatty layer beneath it, and below this latter layer was a hard mass forming the bulk of the tumour, but which at one part of the posterior surface was not covered by the fatty layer. At this part it was seen to be invested by a periosteum-like second capsule of areolar tissue, similar to the one first described, only firmer. The fatty layer was penetrated by projections of connective tissue from the outer areolar layer, and was very like to lipoma, as well in general as in microscopical appearance. From it passed into the right lateral ventricle a pedunculated pear-shaped mass, and there it was found united with the choroid plexus. The peduncle of this mass was lobulated and clustered.

On removal of this fatty covering, the periosteum-like membrane investing the mass of the tumour was arrived at. This was bigger than a walnut, of stony hardness, and consisted of one larger and several smaller irregularly-formed portions united by a firm areolar tissue. The small ones were posterior, uncovered by fat, and could easily be cut with the bone-scissors. On section, it was found to be like the spongy part of an apophysis, with very small meshes filled with fat, no cartilage being discovered, and in the softer parts the bonestroma was much finer, and contained more clear yellow fat. The harder parts

* Virchow's Archiv, p. 385. Sept. 1858.

† Ibid., Band iv. Hefte 5, 6, p. 552.

contained, however, well-marked bone-structure, the Haversian canals being of unequal diameter, and concentric bony lamellæ being easily seen, especially in the very hardest portions.

In the softer parts, Haversian canals and concentric bony lamelle were wanting, although bone corpuscles existed. Where the delicate bone-stroma was covered with fat, areolar tissue existed, in which the origin of bonecorpuscles out of areolar-tissue corpuscles by calcareous deposit around could be traced. The author alludes to the rarity of lipoma of the brain, and states that only one case exists in the Vienna collection; also to the rarity of even calcification of lipoma in man, although tolerably common in the lower animals.

He remarks upon the ossification of the growth without any connexion with the bony parietes of the skull, and concludes by commenting upon the change of areolar-tissue corpuscles into fat-cells, the formation of new bone from areolar tissue in soft parts, spoken of by Virchow, and the investigations of H. Müller concerning the calcification of the neighbourhood of ramifying cells, which appears to him to be the only method of development of normal bone.

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM.

Multilocular Ulcerating Echinococcus Tumours of the Liver.-Dr. Schiess, of St. Gallen, describes a tumour of this nature associated with enlarged spleen removed from the body of a woman, aged fifty-nine, who had been the subject of jaundice, itching of the skin, ascites, &c. In the middle part of the liver, the right lobe of which was atrophied and cirrhosed, existed a whitish knotted and raised mass, the most prominent part of which consisted of fluctuating projections of the size of an egg, covered by thickened peritoneum, and rendered uneven by numerous small yellowish transparent bodies of the size of hemp seed. On making a section of this, a quantity of thin greenish-yellow and turbid fluid gushed forth from large hollow cavities lined by a thick membrane, and evidently consisting of dilated bile-ducts. The small elevations crunched under the knife, and contained partly a thick fluid and partly a granular material capable of being turned out in cylindrical masses.

On complete division with the scalpel, behind the cavernous substance before described, a large mass was brought to view, of the size of a child's head, in part limited by the cavernous substance and in part by peritoneum merely. Inwards existed a thick areolar-tissue stroma in which were insulated portions of liver substance, and in which many large and small cavities were seen, with distinct lining membranes, and filled with a brawn-like transparent substance. Still deeper a hard stroma existed, in which the above-named cavities were, but the brawny masses became less numerous deeper down. Beyond this the stroma was found of a yellowish colour, softened, and broken down, with here and there calcareous spots. In the centre it was so soft that it might be compared to rotten pumpkin. On microscopical examination of a section of the hindermost mass before described, a number of small, partly isolated, partly accumu lated echinococcus vesicles with their characteristic laminations were brought to view, the smallest showing a dark granular contents with calcareous corpuscles. In one of the larger ones the remains of the animal were found as an oval body, surrounded by a structureless membrane, closely beset by a brownishred granular pigment. In this the hooklets so well known were seen. As to the stroma, the outer part of the tumour consisted of a structure possessed of the characters of normal areolar tissue with its anastomosing cells: more inwards, where the breaking down began, a fatty and calcareous metamorphosis was

* Virchow's Archiv, p. 871. Sept. 1858.

seen, commencing in the areolar-tissue corpuscles, and surrounding the echinococci as centres of calcification, the transparent vesicles thus contrasting with the neighbouring dark parts.

The above case is considered by the author as supportive of the view held by Virchow, that sterile echinococci vesicles may exist. He concludes by allusion to the similar cases already published, as by Virchow, Kuhl, Luschka, and Heschl, &c.

HALF-YEARLY REPORT ON FORENSIC MEDICINE,
TOXICOLOGY, AND HYGIENE.

By BENJAMIN W. RICHARDSON, M.D., L.R.C.P.

Physician to the Royal Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest, and Lecturer on Physiology and Hygienic Medicine at the Grosvenor-place Medical School.

I. TOXICOLOGY.

Asphyxia from Imperfect Combustion of Gas.-The case of a gentleman found dead in his bath-room, and whose death was attributed to inhaling air rendered impure by a gas stove used to warm the room, was communicated a short time since to the Boston Society for Medical Improvement. The Society appointed a committee to inquire into the matter, which reported that the fatal result was adequately accounted for on the hypothesis aforenamed. In support of this view, the committee relate an experiment in which they exposed a cat to the air of a room heated to 90° Fahr. by one of the gas stoves. The cat was placed in an iron cage elevated two and a half feet from the floor, the room being eight feet square and ten high. The first thing noticed was a "snapping of the eyes" (qy. jaws, but we write as we read), then a crying (as is frequently heard in the night from cats), this becoming in fifteen or twenty minutes loud. In a short time this crying stopped. The mouth moved, but without any noise. She sneezed fifteen or twenty times, and rubbed the nose and face with her paw; afterwards tried to bite the iron grating of the cage. There was a flow of watery fluid from the mouth, but without any frothing. The mouth was open most of the time. While lying down she would try to get on her hind legs, and would fall over immediately. In thirty minutes there was a tremulousness and throwing back of the head. The respiration became long and stertorous. Convulsive movements came on over the epigastrium, which increased over the body generally, and in forty-eight minutes the animal was dead.-American Journal of the Medical Sciences, April, 1858. [The symptoms produced in this experiment are, as we infer from certain analogous experiments of our own, due rather to exposure to the heated and dry air than to the inhalation of a poisonous vapour arising from imperfect combustion of gas. In our experiments we found the same symptoms in cats where the possibility of any poisonous inhalation was excluded. The symptoms are, moreover, not those of pure asphyxia, while the post-mortem appearances in our observations yielded lungs free from congestion, and a condition of blood in which the venous blood, from its rich redness, could not, by mere examination, be distinguished from the arterial.]

Poisoning with Scheele's Green.-Dr. Schroff has performed a series of experiments with this substance. From these inquiries he draws the following conclusions:-1. Commercial Scheele's green and chemically pure arsenite of copper agree in their effects on the animal economy, only the latter is in proportion the more poisonous. 2. The symptoms during life and the appearances

after death are those which arise from arsenious acid, while those of copperpoisoning are absent. The passage of arsenic into the blood and urine was ascertained in all Dr. Schroff's experiments, both with Scheele's green and with pure arsenite of copper. 3. The influence of the poison is localized chiefly in the stomach, especially when that organ is full and the poison remains a long time in contact with one part of the organ. No great effect was produced in the experiments on the rest of the alimentary canal, which is very different from what occurs in poisoning by metallic arsenic. 4. Compared with other arsenical compounds, arsenite of copper is not the most poisonous if the quantity be taken into account. A decigramme of Scheele's green or of the pure arsenite of copper did not kill rabbits, while the same quantity of arsenious acid, arsenic acid, and of arsenite of potassa, constantly proved fatal. 5. In regard to the rapidity with which the poisonous effects are produced, arsenite of copper is allied to the soluble preparations of arsenic. The quantity of the poison bears a direct proportion to the rapidity of its operation and the period of death.-Zeitschrift der k. k. Gesellsschaft. der Aerzte zu Wien, Jan. 11th, 1858.

Magnesia as an Antidote in Poisoning by Cobalt and Arsenic.-From a series of comparative experiments, Dr. Schroff has also arrived at the following conclusions relating to magnesia as an antidote to arsenic :

1. Death followed the administration of cobalt to four rabbits, at periods of from fifty to fifty-six hours, in one case in twenty-six hours. In three animals treated with metallic arsenic, the periods of death were eighteen, sixty, and fifty hours. The symptoms arising from the two metals and their duration are not very different, and the occasional difference in the duration is easily explained by the circumstance that death occurs more rapidly in rabbits when diarrhoea has set in. The difference in the symptoms during life depends on the circumstance whether the poisonous powder has adhered to the same part of the stomach or cæcum, so as to have a longer or shorter time for becoming dissolved, and producing a local effect, or whether the whole powder has become distributed over the whole surface of the mucous membrane. In one experiment the local phenomena were less extensive than intense; inflammation ensued, and proceeded to sloughing, and the symptoms were prolonged. In another experiment the local effects extended over larger portions of the alimentary surface, and their intensity was sinall; nevertheless, death occurred rapidly, either in consequence of the greater extent of surface acted on by the poison, which was thus placed in a more favourable condition for being absorbed, or from the supervention of diarrhoea. The amount of food in the

stomach also exerted a great influence on the period of appearance of the symptoms. If the stomach were full, the powder remained in contact with the same part of the mucous membrane; if the stomach were empty, the powder was rapidly spread over the alimentary canal.

2. The quantity of poison does not seem to exercise, within certain limits, any influence on the duration of the symptoms. One decigramme of cobalt produced death in fifty hours in a full-grown rabbit; six decigrammes of the same substance killed a rabbit four months old in fifty-six hours. Thus death was produced in a strong animal by a sixth part of the dose which was fatal to a weaker animal. In comparing similar quantities of arsenious acid, cobalt, and metallic arsenic, the latter were found to act most intensely, and this markedly with arsenious acid if it were administered in the form of a dry powder. In solution, however, the cobalt surpasses the other two in poisonous properties. Cobalt and metallic arsenic doubtless undergo in the alimentary canal such changes as render them capable of absorption, as is proved by the presence of arsenic in the urine after their administration; but whether arsenious acid or chloride of arsenic be formed, Dr. Schroff does not decide. These experiments bear out Buchheim's statement, that the poisonous properties of arsenical pre

parations are in proportion to the amount of arsenic which they contain; but account must be taken of their power of being dissolved and absorbed.

3. Magnesia, in the form of hydrated oxide, or calcined, acts without doubt as an antidote to cobalt; the same obtains with arsenious acid if it be not dissolved before being introduced into the stomach. But when arsenic is introduced in the dissolved state it is rapidly absorbed, and antidotes, however speedily given, come too late; nay, when the poison and the antidote are given together, the antidote is of little avail. At least, in all his experiments with solutions of arsenious acid and with arsenite of potassa, Dr. Schroff found antidotes of no avail, provided that the quantity of poison were large. In most of these cases death followed sooner than when no antidote was used, while the local changes were less intense. When cobalt and metallic arsenic are introduced into the stomach in the form of powder, and magnesia is administered, the magnesia has sufficient time to form, particle with particle, an insoluble compound, and thus to render the poison innocuous.-Ibid.

Detection of Arsenic in a Body that had been Burned.-A woman, forty years of age, who had long suffered from an insatiable appetite and from diarrhoea, and who lived very unhappily with her husband, died with symptoms of violent pain and repeated vomitings. The husband having been informed of an impending judicial examination of the body of his wife, set fire to his house, whereby the body was burned to a shapeless masë. The stomach and œesophagus were nevertheless tolerably preserved. In the interior of the stomach there were present several white granules, which on chemical examination yielded arsenic by the usual tests. Arsenic was also obtained from the esophagus, stomach (structure of), and duodenum, as well as from some vomited matters which were found lying in the front of the house in which the deceased woman had resided. Some reddened patches were present in the cesophagus and duodenum, which could not have proceeded from the action of the fire, as parts of the same organs, which from their position were much more exposed to the heat, were almost in their natural state. The husband ultimately confessed both the facts of poisoning and incendiarism, but died before the trial terminated.-Dr. Schäffer, Vjhrsch. f. ger. Med., Juli, 1858, and Clarus in Schmidt's Jahrbücher, October, 1858.

Arsenicated Wall Papers.- Dr. James Whitehead, of Manchester, is of opinion that arsenicated papers which are perfectly smooth and properly glazed are probably harmless, but that it is altogether different with the tufted or flock papers, and also with flat papers which are unglazed. Dr. Whitehead gives the subjoined case, in which symptoms were attributed to arsenical poisoning:

"In the autumn and winter of last year, I attended a youth labouring under symptoms of arsenical poisoning-viz., aphthous ulceration of the gums and tonsils, violent frontal headache, great languor, nauséa and occasional vomiting, inappetence, diarrhoea, and disturbed sleep.

The complaint, mild at its onset, gradually increased in severity, spite of treatment, and at the end of eight or ten weeks, the patient was removed to the country, where he was speedily restored to health. I had repeatedly expressed a suspicion that the symptoms were those of effluvial or other kind of poisoning, and the supply of water and state of the drains were consequently examined; but in these no cause of complaint was found.

"On his return home, perfectly well, he was placed in the same apartment; but in the space of four weeks, was worse than before. He had spongy gums, diphtheritis, violent neuralgia of the forehead and face, great languor, occasional diarrhoea, and emaciation. Attention was next directed to a cistern placed against the wall outside his bed-room, which it was thought might possibly have had a share in producing the mischief, and it was therefore subjected to