296 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



between this figure and the preceding one a total dispropor- 

 tion of measurements — the latter figure being full ten times 

 less than the former, instead of five, according to the magni- 

 fying powers stated. The same disproportion, in figures 2 

 and 3, exists between the lacunae magnified 250 diameters, 

 and those stated to be enlarged 50 times ; the former are full 

 ten times larger than the latter. But the most remarkable 

 examples of confused and erroneous microscopical measure- 

 ments are to be found in observations by Drs. Jenner and 

 Hellier, on some osteoids from the lungs and omentum of a 

 patient who died from malignant disease of the femur after 

 fracture. Tlie history of the case, which is very interesting 

 indeed in a general pathological sense, we shall not follow, as 

 it is foreign to our present object. On tlie description given 

 of the structure of the specimens, however, we have unfoitu- 

 nately too much reason to comment ; we ought rather to say, 

 of the total absence of desc?nption ; for even under the head of 

 " More minute examination of the morbid growths," though a 

 subsequent paragraph is commenced — " The growths in the 

 lungs," Plate XV., figs. 1, 3, 4, — which figures, by the way, 

 are intended to illustrate bone-lacunae — no account whatever 

 is given of anything osteoid, and no description certainly of 

 the structures, the figures of which are referred to : and, in- 

 deed, we should be altogether in uncertainty about the nature 

 of these very curious and interesting specimens, were it not 

 for the few words given in explanation of the plates ; and 

 these, too, are insufficient. The Plate in question contains 

 four figures, not very artistic, certainly, but conveying a 

 general appearance of bone structures, as seen with high and 

 low powers. Figures 1 and 3 exhibit sections of a sort of 

 cancellated bone, not well expressed in the drawing ; magni- 

 fied, as we should have supposed, some 60 or 70 diameters ; 

 but to our astonishment we discovered that, according to Dr. 

 Hellier, they are magnified no less than two hundred dia- 

 meters. We have seen inany specimens of bone from various 

 sources ; but lacunae of such minute dimensions we have never 

 previously observed. Referring to figure 4 in the same Plate, 

 we find some enormous isolated lacunae, taken from the pre- 

 vious specimen ; and as they are in diameter some ten or 

 fifteen times larger tlian those in that specimen, we ex- 

 pected to find that they had been magnified some two or three 

 thousand diameters. Imagine, therefore, our surprise at dis- 

 covering that they had been enlarged only 400 diameters, ac- 

 cording to the statement of Dr. Hellier ! There is yet another 

 figure in tliis Plate, fig. 2, which we confess we do not quite 

 understand ; and the " bone with large lacunae," said to be 



