260 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



THE CAUSE OF INTERMITTENT FEVER. 



The question has been asked, granting that the cryptogamous 

 plants which Dr. Salisbury regards as the cause of intermittent 

 fever are found growing in districts confessedly malarial, do not 

 malarial diseases occur in regions where these algoids are not 

 found? To this inquiry Dr. Salisbury replies : 



" I have not found the Ague Palmella growing to any extent 

 in any locality that is not malarial ; and I never have found a 

 malarial district or locality that did not produce one or more spe- 

 cies of the plants described in my monograph. 



"The Ague plants develop on and just beneath the surface of 

 soils, in certain localities, where the soil and hygrometric condi- 

 tions are suited for their development. They grow as prolifically 

 upon a sand bed as upon boggy soils, providing the proper condi- 

 tions are present. They begin to develop in profusion in this cli- 

 mate (Cleveland, Ohio) early in July, and continue to grow lux- 

 uriantly until the early frosts. 



** As the plants mature they burst and discharge their spores, 

 which accumulate in vast multitudes on the surface of the soil, 

 presenting the appearance often of an incrustation of flour, lime, 

 or brick dust, thinly or thickly scattered." 



In answer to an inquiry whether he finds these plants in the 

 blood, as the impossibility of such a thing without very grave 

 if not fatal results has been urged as one of the points of criticism 

 of his theory, and in objection to his statement that he had found 

 them growing in the urine, Dr. Salisbury informs us that he 

 does, and accompanies his statement with a drawing, representing 

 them as they are found in the circulation. They differ in no re- 

 spect from the plants in their natural habitat, except in the want 

 of color. They appear as large cells, with " double walls, with a 

 narrow intervening space. This is not always evident, but gen- 

 erally is. There is no nucleus. The plants are filled with spores. 

 They arc from 2 to 4 times the diameter of colorless corpuscles, 

 and stand out with a strong outline like the ova of entozoa. 



"One very interesting fact I have noticed, which explains 

 the use of quinine in ague, and that is, where patients have 

 taken it for some time and in considerable doses, the plants in the 

 blood seem almost entirely empty of spores. It seems to destroy 

 their power to produce the reproductive elements." Boston Med. 

 and Surff. Journal. 



NEW PROCESS FOR PREPARING ANATOMICAL SPECIMENS. 



Dr. Brunetti, of Padua, who received a gold medal at the Paris 

 Exhibition, has communicated to the International Medical Con- 

 gress particulars of his valuable invention. The process com- 

 prises 4 operations, namely, 1, the washing of the piece to be 

 preserved ; 2, the eating away of the fatty matter ; 3, the tanning ; 

 and, 4, the desiccation. 



1. To wash the piece, M. Brunctli passes a current of pure 



