er's "Medizinische Jahrbücher," a case of Addison's disease in which he obtained the remarkable phenomenon of fission of red blood-corpuscles. The patient was forty-five years of age, very anæmic, and suffered from considerable debility, with headache, palpitation of the heart, and dyspnoea. The size of the spleen, as ascertained by percussion, was somewhat increased, and there was a little sibilant rhonchus in different parts of the chest, but few other indications of disease. The patient had been perfectly well up to a year previously, when he suddenly fell ill with vomiting and diarrhoea. He became very feeble, and several similar attacks occurred in the course of the year, his memory at the same time failing. On examining the bloodcorpuscles under the microscope, they appeared paler and larger (flatter) than usual; and he observed that they changed their form whilst under examination. They presented, buiscuit, club, and vermiform shapes; thrust out one or more processes and again withdrew them; constrictions occurred, and ultimately portions separated off entirely. The addition of a little weak acetic acid considerably accelerated the rapidity with which these changes took place. Finding these relations interesting, he experimented on the corpuscles with heat and electricity; but neither these nor the addition of quinia produced any alteration in the phenomena witnessed. He was able to obtain Teichmann's crystals from the blood, but they were few in number, small, and pale. In the course of three months the bronzing of the skin of the face, neck, and hands became well marked. Fission of the red corpuscles has been noted by Friedrich as occurring in the case of leucæma.-Ex.

Professor Crocq of Brussels on Cholera Contagion.-The question of cholera is at present one of so much importance that all documents on the subject coming from recognized authorities, and bearing a practical character, must be noted with great care. Professor Crocq, of Belgium, vice-president of the Brussels Academy of Medicine, has just communicated to the Paris Academy of Medicine the results of a series of experiments which he has carried on upon animals with the object of

testing whether the alvine evacuations constitute the true vehicle of the choleraic virus. In all of the animals he has succeeded in producing most of the symptoms of cholera, and he finds that the alvine evacuations indeed constitute the vehicle of the virus, not, however, as was suggested by Pettenkofer, through a kind of fermentation, but because of the immediate presence of the virus in the evacuations. M. Crocq draws the following inferences from the results of his researches:

1. Cholera is contagious, and is transmitted by a virus, the vehicle of which is the alvine evacuations.

2. The virus may manifest its effects even less than twelve hours before any evacuation of matter.

3. The period of incubation may be only of two hours; it may continue over one or two days, and even more.

4. All the subjects do not show a like predisposition to undergo the effects of the choleraic poison, receptivity may even be altogether absent.-Ex.

A Test for Hysteria.-The "Medical Press and Circular" directs attention to a French work recently issued by Dr. Chairon, entitled "Clinical Studies of Hysteria." Dr. Chairon is chief medical officer to the Vesinet Asylum, and bases his opinions on an experience with 26,000 female patients, among whom were a great many cases of hysteria:

He says that he has ascertained that in every one of them the commencement of the affection has been marked by a special sign-insensibility of the epiglottis. The determination of this symptom, which is constantly present, is very simple. It is sufficient to introduce gently the finger into the mouth, so as not to frighten the patient, and place it on the base of the tongue. It will be found that the epiglottis may be touched, displaced, and scratched with the nail without producing the least regurgitation. When this condition exists, there will be found invariably a congestion of one or both ovaries, usually of the left.

Specific for Ptyalism.-Sir Thomas Watson remarks that M.

Jukes de Styrap has found a combination of chlorate of potash and sulphur, ten grains of each, taken every four hours, almost a specific for mercurial ptyalism.-New Ed. Prac.

CLINICAL RECORDS.

"Ex principiis, nascitur probabilitas: ex factis, vero veritas."

CLINICAL LECTURES AT THE "HOPITAL DE LA CHARITÉ," given by S. JACCOUD, Assistant Professor to the Faculty of Medicine at Paris; Physician to the Hospital St. Louis; Chevalier of the Legion of Honor; Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Science of Lisbon, and of the Medical Societies of Berlin, Vienna, Wurzburg, etc. Containing twenty-nine wood cuts and eleven chromo-lithographs. [Translated by Dr. J. D. JACKSON, of Danville, Ky.]

SIXTEENTH LECTURE-DIFFUSE SCLEROSIS OF THE SPINAL

MARROW.

Clinical Exhibition of a Case of Paralysis Disseminated throughout the Four Limbs-Character of the Paroxysmal Pains-State of Electric Contractility Disorders Connected with Micturition and Defecation-Derangement of Sensibility.

Diagnosis between a Lesion of the Spinal Nerves and Lesion of the MarrowDiagnosis of the Seat of the Lesions of the Marrow-Diagnosis of the Nature of the Lesion-Concerning Sclerosis of the Marrow-Its two varieties-Uniform Sclerosis-Diffuse Sclerosis-Observations-Treatment of the Painful Attacks in Spinal Sclerosis.

Gentlemen, I cannot complete by an autopsy the history of the patient which I propose studying to-day; she will necessarily succumb to her disease, but this fatal termination is many months off, and perhaps a year yet. Nevertheless, I do not wish to let this interesting case pass, instructive as it is in more than one respect. It will furnish me with the occasion for sketching the prominent traits in the history of an obscure disease of the spinal marrow, and although informal, this rough sketch will not be without utility, viewed in comparison with the delineation of progressive nervous atrophy, which occupied us in our two last meetings.

In No. 6, St. Anne's Ward, there lies a woman fifty-six years old, and of robust constitution, who had never had any serious disease before that which forced her to enter the hospital some months ago. This affection is traceable to an already ancient date, and the patient, who with an intelligence above mediocrity, possesses an excellent memory, thus traces the initial phases. It was one day* two years and nine months ago, that following a very painful nervous impression, she was suddenly seized with a general trembling, to which was added on the second day a complete impossibility to walk or stand erect. The beginning is, you see, very clear, and this detail has its interest. About eight days thereafter the trembling disappeared, and has never recurred; but the powerlessness of the inferior members persisted for more than three weeks, after which it gradually receded, and six months after this species of attack, the patient returned to her every-day life. However, she did not return to as perfect a state of health as before; she soon observed, to her mortification, that she was much more quickly fatigued than formerly, and that the cessation of movement could not be deferred a minute. This was the first period. It continued without any modification for eighteen months, when one of fortune's reverses plunged her into the most complete destitution; to supply her wants, this unfortunate one commenced selling bonnets beneath a carriage-way, where she was exposed to dampness and a continual current. After three months of this rough life, she was taken with sharp pains in the loins and back, and at the end of some weeks, these pains radiated to the lower limbs. The patient struggled still for a certain time; then the pains attacked the superior members, the movements of the hands became difficult and embarrassing, walking and standing erect caused lively suffering, and soon were no longer possible, and in six months after the symptoms had declared themselves, the woman, powerless in her limbs, entered the hospital, where I have observed her for nine months.

This retrospective history may be thus resumed: After a

*This Lecture was given in the last week of July.

moral emotion, the sudden appearance of a general trembling and impaired motorial power in the lower limbs; at the end of six weeks an apparent cure, with persistent enfeeblement of the muscular force. Twenty-one months later, under the prolonged influence of cold and moisture, there are dorsal pains, which soon extend themselves to the limbs, and at the end of the second year, impairment of motion in the legs and arms.

Since this woman has entered the hospital the accidents of akinesia have presented an aggravation which, though mild, has been continual; on the other hand, the painful phenomena have amended, and I wish, in finishing now with this symptom, to indicate their peculiar characters; they are of considerable importance.

The patient says, that during three months prior to her entrance into hospital her pains were continuous; this is possible, and I can say nothing as to this period, since I did not observe her; but this I can affirm, it is that during eight months these pains have always presented a double element, the one continuous, the other paroxysmal. I will explain: In the cervico-dorsal region there are two points which are constantly painful, either spontaneously, or more especially when pressed upon; one of these points is at a level with the seventh cervical vertebra, the other, more extensive, occupies the height of the last dorsal, and all the lumbar vertebræ. These fixed pains, which pressure augments either over the spinous apophyses or the lateral parts of the column, are very moderate; when they alone exist, they do not deprive the patient of sleep, there is, to speak truly, a continuous uneasiness rather than a lively pain. But all at once, without any appreciable cause, these symptoms were aggravated, an intense pain declared itself at the points indicated, which became the foci of irradiation, starting from which, they shot out through all the four limbs. These paroxysmal symptoms are horribly violent; as long as they remain, the patient has not a minute's sleep, and she avoids everything like motion, in order not to increase her sufferings, which, despite all her courage, often move her to tears. These painful attacks con