380 



Vircliow's law of connective tissue, the source of all pa- 

 thological new formations, which appeared so general, fails 

 then especially by its want of generality. 



Report on certain points connected with the Histology of 

 Minute Blood-vessels. By Brevet Lieutenant- 

 Colonel J. J. Woodward, Assistant Surgeon, U, S. 

 Army. 



Having recently been occupied in the critical examination 

 of certain preparations, in the Microscopical Section of 

 the Museum, illustrative of the minute anatomy of the 

 blood-vessels, I have thought that some of them threw 

 so much light on certain points involved in the recent dis- 

 cussions with regard to the doctrine of inflammation, that a 

 short account of them would be of interest, and might 

 perhaps do good service, in connection with the appreciation 

 of the conflicting statements which have appeared in the 

 Medical Journals since the publication of the paper of Dr. J. 

 Cohnheim,^ on inflammation and suppuration. 



Perhaps the observations of Cohnheim must fairly be re- 

 garded as elaborations of the previous experiments of Dr. 

 Augustus Waller, but certainly they produced an impression 

 upon the medical world far beyond that made by the papers 

 in the Philosophical Magazine,^ and more or less complete 

 accounts of the conclusions arrived at by the distinguished 

 Berlin observer have continued to appear, from time to time, 

 in both foreign and American medical journals, ever since 

 the publication of his paper in 1867. 



Recently protests against tliese conclusions have appeared 

 in various quarters, among wliich particular reference may 

 be made to the paper of Prof, Koloman Balogh, of Pesth, 

 published in 1869,^ and that of Dr. V. Feltz of Strasbourg, 



' " Ueber Entziindung und Eiterung ;" ' Virchow's Archiv,' Bd. xl., S. 1. 



^ "Microscopical Examination of some of the principal Tissues of the 

 Animal Frame, as observed in the Tongue of the living Erog, Toad," &c. ; 

 ' London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine ;' vol. xxix, p. 

 271 (ISIG). " Microscopical Observations on the Perforation of the Ca- 

 pillaries by the Corpuscles of the Blood, and on the Origin of Mucous and 

 Pus-Globules ;" lb., p. 397. 



' " In welcliem Verhaltnisse steht das Heraustreten der farblosen Blut- 

 zellen durch die unversehrten Gefasswandungen zu der Entziindung und 

 Eiterung?" 'Virchow's Archiv,' Bd. xlv, S. 19. Readers inclined to 



