104 NOTE ON HYDROPHOBIA. 



naked eye ; and, when examined microscopically, nothing beyond 

 intense congestion was discovered. Dr. Clarke himself has placed 

 on record the fact that he had examined the brain and spinal cord 

 from hydrophobic death, without having noticed anything 

 abnormal. 



In the present instance, the most obvious appearance is the 

 great abundance of nuclear cells with which every section is 

 crowded (PI. XIL, Figs, i, 2). This proliferation, or hyperplasia, 

 of nuclei extends to the minute vessels and their coats, and is 

 well seen in strands of the fibres of the nervous structure 

 (Fig. 3). Under a high power, an eighth, leucocytes were to be 

 seen, and had the appearance of passing through their tissue. 

 The vessels were much dilated from distension during Hfe. 

 Colloid bodies are also to be seen sparsely scattered in the 

 neuroglia. 



What has here been recorded would seem to be in accordance 

 with previous observations. Dr. Gowers dwells upon the evidence 

 of preceding extreme conjestion, especially about the nuclei of the 

 hypoglossal and pneumogastric nerves in the medulla oblongata. 

 The article in Ziemssen's Cyclopaedia describes also congestion as 

 the most uniform, if not the only, pathological condition. Dr. Long 

 Fox, of Bristol, in his exhaustive work on the *' Pathological 

 Anatomy of the Nervous Centres," sums up the lesions in 

 hydrophobia as consisting in vascular conjestion, distension, 

 infiltration, and haemorrhage, with occasionally traces of grey 

 degeneration. 



The preceding observations, although not adding any positive 

 information, are not, as already observed, devoid of interest from a 

 negative point of view. 



Explanation of Plate XII. 



Fig. 1. — Dilated vessels and proliferation of nuclei in the neuroglia of 

 the Brain substance — Spots of Colloid degeneration. 



,, 2. — Dilated vessels with Leucocytes, and proliferation of nuclei in 

 the neuroglia. 



,, 3. — Proliferation of nuclei, on, and within the vessels, and among 

 the nerve fibres. 



Drawn under | objective by W. B. Kesteven. 



