168 



August 15, 1849. 

 C. T. Jackson, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Present, eleven members. 



Dr. W. I. Burnett gave an account, with illustrations on 

 the blackboard, of certain animals vi^hich he had recently 

 observed by the microscope in the blood of a person who 

 had died with a chronic enlargement of the spleen. Dr. 

 Burnett's account was as follows. 



While recently examining with the microscope some blood 

 taken from a human female who had died with an enlarged 

 spleen, I was surprised to perceive in the field of observation, 

 beside the usual corpuscles, very numerous naviculoid bodies. 

 They were rather more than twice the size of blood corpuscles, 

 swollen in the middle and pointed at both ends, and of a dark 

 gray color. In many respects these bodies resembled the loricce 

 of some of the naviculoid Infusoria ; but they were not loricas, 

 since by the addition of water they became swollen, and were 

 therefore saccular. No motion could be perceived ; but that 

 they were animals can justly, I think, be inferred, from the fact 

 that their external envelope presented some traces of organization. 



I feel the more confirmed in this view as Glijge (MiJller's 

 Archives, 1842, p. 148) mentions a haematozoon, which, if I 

 draw a correct picture in my mind from his verbal description, 

 this one would closely resemble. GliJge found it in the blood of 

 a frog. Valentin also mentions (Miiller's Archives, 1841, p. 

 435) having found hsematozoa in some of the lower Vertebrata. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson read a letter from Increase A. Latham 

 of Milwaukie on the subject of " Medical Geology." The 

 tendency of the letter was to confirm the opinion heretofore 

 expressed by Dr. Jackson, that cholera is not likely to 

 occur on the primary formations. 



Some conversation ensued on the subject, various mem- 

 bers quoting authorities and mentioning facts at variance 



