Fl'llTllEli OBSFJIVATIOXS (IN FIBIilN TllllOMBOSIS I\ TIIF (iLOMFJilLAI! 

 \M) OTIiFIl l!F\.\L VFSSFLS l\ I 



Bv Maximilian Hehzck;, .M. D.. Pulltolofiist Tiiokxjicul Ldlxintlori/. 



A short time «ago tlic w riter called attention to the rreciucncy o\'. 

 hyaline fibrin thrombi in the glomerular capillaries and in utlicr 

 renal vessels in bubonic plague. In the introduction to HuUetin 

 Xo. 23, Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Government Laboratories, 

 Manila, October, 1904, entitled "The Plague: Bacteriology, Morbid 

 Anatomy, and Histopathology," on page 10 the following i-efei-ence 

 to these histopathologic changes was made : 



In studying the histopathology of phigue a higlily interesting change was 

 found in the kidneys, namely, extensive and frequently occurring hyaline 

 fibrin tliromboses in the glomerular capillaries. As it appears that this 

 change has not lieen described in the study of the microscopic anatomy of 

 the disease, it has been considered somewhat at length. 



At the time the above was written, the histopathologic change 

 under discussion had been found in seven out of twenty cases 

 examined. When these investigations were undertaken, as was 

 stated in Bulletin Xo. 23, the important publications of the Aus- 

 trian Plague Commission were not accessible in Manila. Only after 

 the bulletin was in print did they arrive from Europe. From the 

 Austrian commission's publications it is evident that Albrecht and 

 Gohn had indeed previously encountered the same changes and had 

 even reproduced tliciii in one of their drawings, but it is equally 

 clear that they have entirely niisiiitei'preted and wrongly described 

 them. It is obvious that the niateriiil fi'om which the description 

 and illustrations were derived had ])een improperly fixed, and lience 

 its examination led to the faulty interpretation of the changes 

 which had actually occurred. 'r\\\> iiitei pretation has been repeated 

 again and again and quoted by subse(iuent writers in the description 

 of the histologic changes in ])iagiu\ Everywhere do We read of the 



