68 



refers to the change of the ration law, by which the one Jay for 

 vegetable food was taken away, as a cause of its appearance in the 

 East India squadron. Dr. Dodd, of the Potomac, suggests that 

 the inferior quality of the salt used in curing the meat was one 

 cause. Dr. Foltz sums up the causes of the disease in the Mexican 

 Gulf squadron thus: "Protracted cruising between the tropics, un- 

 wholesome and innutritious salt provisions, vitiated atmosphere on 

 board, resulting from imperfect ventilation, at times a reduction in 

 the quantity of water; and, in the crew of the Baritan, the despond- 

 ency and disappointment resulting from being kept on board ship 

 after the expiration of the time for which many of the crew had 

 shipped." He observes, in regard to the treatment, that it consists 

 in supplying the system freely with protein, by giving freely such 

 vegetables as most abound in it. The vegetable acids and potatoes 

 are the chief means. The basis of the potatoe being starch, he sug- 

 gests experiments with that substance. He confirms the experiments 

 of Becquerel and Ilodier in not having found the blood dissolved. 



38. Spontaneous Coagulation of the Blood in the Veins in Ca- 

 chectic Diseases. — The next condition of the blood to which the com- 

 mittee would draw attention, is described by M. Bouchut. This 

 author attributes the pain and swelling of a limb in the latter stages 

 of cachectic disease to coagulation of blood in the veins, not from 

 inflammation of the vein, but from something in the condition of the 

 blood itself. His opinions are founded on the cases of three phthi- 

 sical women in the last stages of marasmus. A woman with calculous 

 nephritis, which had destroyed the tubular structure of the kidney ; a 

 man with cnccphaloid disease of the liver; a female reduced very 

 low by typhoid fever; a boy ill with severe burn, and others suf- 

 fering from great prostration of the vital powers. The lower extre- 

 mities are the usual seat of the disease, but sometimes the veins of 

 the arm and neck, and the pulmonary arteries, and the veins of the 

 liver as described by Bouillaud and Baron; and the sinuses of the 

 brain as seen by Abercrombie. In forty-four cases out of fifty-one, 

 Bouchut saw it in the lower extremities. A remarkable thing is, 

 that the veins usually implicated are those most distant from the 

 seat of the disease. The coagulum is at first a dark clot, having the 

 shape of the vessel, but not adhering. Adhesion depends on phle- 

 bitis. After fifteen or twenty days the coagula lose their colour, 

 become tough, sometimes even cartilaginous or calcareous. The 

 symptoms are local, and unconnected with the chronic disease. 



