57 



bounded by the rami of the lower jaw. This portion 

 contained a soft cheesy mass. To the naked eye this 

 seemed to be ordinary sebaceous material, but treat- 

 ment with ether and alcohol revealed no crystals of 

 cholesterine, while staining a film with Gentian-violet 

 shewed it to be composed of a dense mass of .septic 

 bacilli with here and there a very few white cor- 

 puscles. The liver was enormous and very congested, 

 and the spleen was typical of an old attack of Septic 

 Fever — about one inch long, uniformly enlarged, firm 

 in consistency, rather pale in colour, and shewing the 

 remains of the original nodules in a state of partial 

 fatty degeneration. A few bacilli were found in it. 

 In addition to the interest attaching to this case as 

 shewing (i) the amount of resistance certain indi- 

 viduals can exhibit against the disease in its earlier 

 and more virulent stages, and (2) the peculiar nature 

 of the final development, it is worthy of note that, in 

 spite of the pronounced and painful difficulty of 

 breathing observed during life, there was nothing 

 abnormal discoverable in the lungs, and no evidence 

 of pressure on the trachea. As in many other cases 

 of this di.sease the dyspnoea was the result of the 

 toxins in the blood acting upon the nerves governing 

 the function of respiration, in much the same way as 

 in human diphtheria we find the blood poison affect- 

 ing the nerves which control the action of the heart. 



We consequently realize that the diagnoses of 

 Asthma and Bronchitis repeated several times a week 

 in the fancy papers on the strength of such an incon- 

 clusive symptom as shortness of breath is manifestly 

 unjustifiable in a large proportion of cases, and that 

 any hope of success from the favourite treatment 

 with demulcents and expectorants is only too often 

 but an ig?iis Jatuus. Some of the advice we receive 

 on this point borders indeed on the amusing. " For 

 '* the former (asthma) a few drops of glycerine stirred 



