H 



Dept.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 7 



formed by dilatations of the ramifications filled with fluid, taken, of course, by- 

 imbibition from the uterine caduca. This condition of things is recognizable 

 not only from the exterior aspect of the mass, but on examining one of these 

 grape-like bodies under a microscope, the same peculiar amorphous substance, 

 with nuclei and granulations interposed, is seen, that characterises the vil- 

 losities of the chorion. 



It is worthy of mention that this is the second time this woman had this 

 tame false conception, as it is termed. 



Dr. Woodward read a paper entitled " On Suppuration in Cancerous GVoiwfAs." 

 After stating that many of the purulent looking fluids found in connection 

 with cancers were not pus, but softened cancer matter, this paper proceeded 

 to detail a minute anatomy of a case of ulcerated cancer of the breast, in which 

 a true pus was discharged from the ulcers. 



Attention was called to the absence, in this and in many other cases, of the 

 train of peculiar symptoms designated as the cancerous cachexia, and the 

 probability was hinted that these phenomena (as distinct from mere exhaustion 

 by suppuration or hemorrhage,) might, perhaps, bear less relation to cancer 

 per se, than to cancerous infiltration of certain internal organs. 



In connection with the minute anatomy of the tumor, various doctrinal 

 points were discussed. Especially were the phenomena of suppuration in 

 cancer, as here noted, regarded as confirming the doctrine of the homology of 

 cancer with new formations of connective tissue, and as antagonistic to a 

 purely humeral view of the pathology of cancers. 



The paper will be published in full in the American Journal of Medical Sciences. 



April. 

 I. Pathology. 



1. Dr. Morris presented to the Department, a human embryo, accompanied 

 with its membranes. The membranes were developed as much as they gene- 

 rally are at two and a half months. The embryo itself appeared to have been 

 arrested in its development at one and a half mouths. The chorion and amnion 

 were separated by effused blood, which was also found beneath the coverings 

 of the foetus and immediately around it. 



2. Dr. Leidy called the attention of members of the Department to specimens 

 on the table of three kinds of dipterous larva? from man. As he had not made the 

 tiies an especial subject of investigation, he could not say postively to what 

 genera and species the larvae belonged. 



No. 1, of which there are seven specimens in the vial, appear to be the larvae 

 of the Blue-bottle fly. They are part of a number which were given him by 

 a physician, and had been vomited from the stomach by a child. 



These larvae are half an inch in length, and 1 lines at the broadest part; 

 elongated conical, anteriorly acute, posteriorly obtuse ; everywhere minutely 

 shagreened ; anterior articuli strongly marked ; posterior ones with a transverse 

 row of minute papillae becoming obsolete anteriorly. Head bipapillate, with 

 a pair of hooks projecting from the mouth. Succeeding articuhis with a spira- 

 cle on each side. Caudal articulus with an elliptical pit margined with a 

 corona of conical tubercles, and having at bottom a pair of large spiracles. 

 Anal aperture bounded on each side with a large trilateral wart, and posteriorly 

 with a transverse crest terminating at each end in a conical tubercle. 



No. 2, of which there are five specimens in the vial, appear to be the larvae of a 

 species of Anthomyia or Flower-fly. These are part of numerous specimens, which 

 were given to him for examination, by a physician who had obtained it from his 

 own person. He had been seized with all the symptoms of cholera morbus, 

 and in the discharges he had detected numerous specimens of this, to him, 

 unknown parasite. It was in the latter part of summer ; and the larvae, it If 

 suspected, had been swallowed with some cold boiled vegetables. 



1859.] 



