biological and microscopical department 7 



April 3. 

 Director S. "W. Mitchell, M.D., in the chair. 



Eight members present. 



A donation from the Surgeon-General's office of Dr. J. J. Wood- 

 ward's interesting report, entitled "A Memorandum of the Test 

 Podura, with Five Photo-micrographs," was received. 



Dr. James Tj'son exhibited slides of the deposit from two speci- 

 mens of urine from a so-called intermittent haematuria, which were 

 interesting, if not important, from the fact that the first specimen, 

 though containing granular casts, did not contain blood-corpuscles, 

 and that the second, between which and the first the urine had 

 become quite clear, contained, in addition to granular casts, blood- 

 corpuscles and blood-casts. The importance of this observation 

 lies in the circumstance that in the cases of intermittent hema- 

 turia reported by Harlej^ {Medico- Cliirurgical Transactions^ vol. 

 48, 1865), blood-corpuscles were exceedingly rare, being found in 

 but a single case, and not more than one or two in the field of the 

 microscope. So rarely, indeed, have corpuscles been present, that 

 Dr. Beale, in the first volume of the Practitioner^ August, 1868, 

 says that "it is therefore improbable that in these cases there is 

 any hemorrhage as in acute inflammation of the kidneys, and they 

 ought not to be spoken of as cases of haeiuaturia." 



In the present case all the other phenomena of intermittent 

 haematuria attend, and in the second specimen of urine there are 

 many free blood-corpuscles and blood-casts, while in the first the 

 most careful searching detected none. 



The treatment found most useful in intermittent hasmaturia, 

 that b}' antiperiodic doses of quinia, preceded by a purgative 

 dose of calomel, has been the most satisfactory, there being no 

 recurrence since its adoption, although three weeks have elapsed, 

 while other modes of treatment adopted since October, 1870, when 

 the affection first appeared, have signally failed.* 



Dr. Joseph G. Richardson exhibited a slide charged with pul- 

 monary elastic tissue from the boiled sputa of a phthisical 

 patient in the Episcopal Hospital, and called the attention of the 



' July 1st, 1871. The patient has since quite recovered under this treat- 

 ment. 



