Dept] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. I 



In connection with this subject, Dr. Leidy stated that he is in the habit 

 of suspending injected preparations in turpentine, by which liquid the 

 tissues are rendered translucent. The jars in which they are thus sus- 

 pended, are hermetically sealed by means of a piece of hog's bladder, well 

 soaked and dipped in a cement of gum arabic, acetic acid and sugar I n 

 order to suspend the preparation, a. piece of whalebone or a bar of metal 

 should be used ; wood is too porous. Thus arranged the turpentine 

 remains perfectly limpid. 



Dr. Leidy added, that in these preparations, some change must take 

 place in the air over the turpentine, for the bladder covering the jar 

 bellies down, becoming concave. To give therefore a neater appearance 

 to the preparation, he is in the habit of applying a second piece of blad- 

 der, prepared as the other ; in which a small orifice is made with a pin. 

 which prevents its retraction into the neck of the jar. 



Mr. Slack stated that in England, glycerin was exteusively used for 

 mounting preparations, the high price of alcohol in that country prevent- 

 ing its general use for such a purpose. 



II. Pathology. 



Dr. Leidy exhibited a portion of the stomach of a horse recently dead. 

 which contained a number of spheroidal tumors, about an inch in diame- 

 ter, The tumors contained a number of nematoid worms (Spiroptera me- 

 gastoma) still alive. 



Dr. Darrach, who had examined the structure of these tumors, had 

 found their walls to be principally fibrous tissue, containing a puruloid 

 matter filled with fine granules, which were the eggs of the worm. These 

 tumors possessed orifices communicating with the stomach. 



This horse was said to have died from rupture of the diaphragm 

 caused by great distension of the intestines, in consequence of a large- 

 meal of Indian Corn. This rupture was situated in the muscular portion 

 of the diaphragm, and was about six inches in length. 



III. Teratology. 



Dr. Morris related a case of arrest of development in the hand of a 

 young man with whom he is acquainted. This arrest is in two of his 

 fingers. This condition of things is attributed by Dr. Morris to the 

 action of filaments thrown around the fingers, and checking their growth, 

 probably about the third or fourth month of intra- uterine life. These 

 filaments or ligatures were assigned first by Dr. Montgomery as a cause 

 of this phenomenon. 



Dr. Mitchell while acknowledging, as a general rule, the justice of the 

 reason assigned by Dr. Morris, for these arrests of development, declared 

 that it could not explain those cases where for a series of generations the 

 same deformity exists. 



The mother of the person alluded to here, attributed the condition of 

 her son's hand to her having witnessed the amputation by a surgeon of 

 the same fingers while pregnant. 



April. 



Dr. Mitchell read the following paper on Corroval and Vao. 



I860.] 



