75 



and tubercle : — 1st. In a scrofulous individual there is a morbid state 

 of the blood, and one of the most usual tendencies of such a state of 

 the circulating fluid is, that during the nutrition of organs, or what 

 is called by physiologists the organic assimilation of tissues, tubercle, 

 as a perversion of such act, shall be formed. 2d. It is equally a 

 law attendant upon this condition of the blood, that inflammation 

 of a specific or peculiar character, often proceeding to exudation, to 

 suppuration, or ulceration, is very liable to attack particular portions 

 of the body. "Now," says he, "you will observe that I think both 

 a specific inflammation and the deposit of tubercle evidences of scro- 

 fulous disease — in short, that they are the disease." 



53. Dr. J. B. S. Jackson,* of Boston, has given the results of 

 microscopic and chemical examinations, made by Dr. John Bacon, 

 Jr., of melanotic matter in a case treated by himself. The tumours 

 were of two kinds, black and light brown. Sections of the brown 

 tumours appeared, both by reflected and transmitted light, composed 

 of coarse grains with indistinct fibres, a few roundish groups of 

 regular black granules, apparently enclosed in cells, scattered 

 throughout the mass. The colour was given by a brown colouring 

 matter irregularly diffused. Pressure forced out a small quantity of 

 colourless viscid fluid, accompanied by vast numbers of transparent 

 oil globules, of every size, readily uniting from contact by pressure. 



Diffused in water, a few black granules, and immense numbers of 

 semi-transparent cells, of various forms and sizes, not distinguishable 

 from the cancer cells, were exhibited. These were best seen when 

 the fat had been removed by boiling in ether. Many of the cells 

 have distinct nuclei and nucleoli; some have several nuclei. 



The shapes vary, some being caudate, others fusiform, oval and 

 nearly round. Sometimes the wall of the cell was visible and very 

 thick. The cells could be traced from the edges into the mass, pro- 

 ducing the granular appearance. Sections of the black tumour 

 afforded oil-globules mixed with a viscid fluid, (as in the brown,) with 

 great numbers of small irregular granules, perfectly black, which 

 were isolated or in groups, contained in cells. They resembled the 

 pigment granules from the eye of an ox. There were cancer cells, 

 but not as distinct as in the brown, and a few fibres. The colour of 

 the black was not changed by boiling in ether, while the brown lost 

 its colour; this being due not to pigment granules, but to brown 



* American Journal of the Medical Sciences, April 1S4S. 



