Monthly retrospect of the medical sciences : February to December 1848 / edited by Alexander Fleming and W.T. Gairdner.

Date:
MDCCCXLVIII [1848]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Monthly retrospect of the medical sciences : February to December 1848 / edited by Alexander Fleming and W.T. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Bright’s disease. In the cylinder epithe¬ lium of the seminiferous ducts of old men, there may frequently be observed an ac¬ cumulation of fatty granules. The same transformation of the hepatic glandular cells is an appearance characteristic of the commencement of fatty liver. In the lymphatic glands, there are frequently found, both in the normal and patholo¬ gical conditions, a few larger cells than ordinary filled with fatty molecules. In the colourless corpuscles of the blood of various animals, Virchow has demon¬ strated an accumulation of fatty mole¬ cules. The author has made the same observation in pregnant dogs, in horses affected with glanders, and on one occa¬ sion in the blood of a pneumonic patient. In cataract he has found the cells of the liquor Morgagni full of fatty granules, which he also found among the fibres of the lens. Finally, in pathological tissues, it is very common to find granular cells, or so called inflammation-globules, de¬ veloped from cells having albuminous contents. — Schmidt’s Jahrbiicher, Oct. 1847, from Virchow and Reinhart’s Archiv, 1.1,1847. [This is a very valuable paper, and shows conclusively that epithelial are transformed into granular cells. That such, however, is not the only origin of these bodies, is proved by their great fre¬ quency in cerebral softenings, where no such explanation can apply to their for¬ mation. In such cases, numerous ob¬ servations have convinced us that trans¬ parent exudation cells are first formed, which afterwards become granular.] 13.—Chemical Researches on the Blood in the General Paralysis of the Insane. By M. Michea.-—In these cases the analysis of the blood has given results of a very vari¬ able character. In general, the globules are increased ; and it is only in a small minority that they exist in their normal quantity, and, in a still smaller, that they are diminished. In the majority of cases, the fibrine is natural; it diminishes in a certain number ; and is seldom increased. The solid constituents of the serum are. in the majority of cases, in their normal quantity ; are increased in very few cases, and notably diminished—especially as re¬ gards the albumen—in about a third of the cases examined. The water is gene¬ rally increased, but often diminished in amount. From these investigations, M. Michea draws the conclusion, that the augmenta¬ tion of the globules, and decrease of the fibrine, occurring together or separately, are the cause of the cerebral congestion so frequent in the paralysis of the insane. The diminution of the globules is occasion¬ ally connected with convulsive and cata¬ leptic attacks ; while the increase of the fibrine occurs along with epilepsy, and other symptoms of acute inflammation of the brain and its membranes. The investigations of M. Michea, ac¬ cording to their author, indicate bleeding and low diet as the rational treatment of the diseased, except in those cases where we have reason to suspect pressure on the brain from the accumulation of serum, or where the analysis of the blood dis¬ plays a tendency to diminution of the globules, in which cases purgatives should be employed in place of bleeding.— Comptes Rendus, 29th November 1847. 14.—Cataract composed of Phosphate of Lime. By M. Magne.—The patient, aged forty-seven, had, twenty-five years previously, got some sparks of melted sil¬ ver in his eye, which occasioned the cata¬ ract in question. One morning on getting up, the cataract had fallen forward into the anterior chamber of the eye, appa¬ rently in consequence of a violent fit of rage into which he had fallen the night before. Violent pain and inflammation supervened, and M. Magne performed the operation of extraction, which was per¬ formed with difficulty, owing to the rest¬ lessness of the patient. It was a perfectly hard capsular cataract, and an analysis by M. Lesueur showed that it consisted en¬ tirely of phosphate of lime, with a very small quantity of animal matter.—Com2)1es Rendus, 29th November 1847. IV.—PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 15.—Hebra’s System of Skin Diseases. By Dr Fuk’stenberg of Berlin.—[During a short visit that we paid Vienna in the autumn of 1846, w'e w'ere much grati¬ fied in examining the division for skin diseases conducted by Dr Hebra, at the great ho.spital in that city. His arrange¬ ment and method of treatment are, not only in many respects novel, but highly valuable ; and in introducing a sketch of them, lately drawn up by Dr Furstenberg of Berlin, to the English reader, we hope to advance in some de¬ gree this much neglected branch of prac-
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