A New Method of Preserving Tumours. 221 



diatom world. Alas ! the anomalies were so many, and the diffi- 

 culties so great, that I abandoned it in disgust. 



As regards, then, my own Conspectus, I candidly acknowledge it 

 is faulty. Not, however, because I have expunged too many 

 genera, but too few. I have trusted too much to the statements 

 and figures of, especially, the Continental authors, and I am be- 

 coming more and more distrustful — not a very pleasant state of 

 things. I am very much obliged to Mr. Kitton and Captain Lang 

 for the kind manner in which they have received my Conspectus, 

 and feel encouraged to go on. 



Geneva, N.Y., March 19, 1873. 



VII. — A New Method of Preserving Tumours and certain Urinary 

 Deposits during Transportation. By Joseph G. Richardson, 

 M.D., Microscopist to the Pennsylvania Hospital. 



In the early days of medical microscopy, partly because all revela- 

 tions of the science were looked upon by most practitioners with 

 suspicion or positive distrust, partly, I presume, on account of real 

 unskilfulness among its students, microscopic examinations were 

 rarely called for, and there was little need of devising plans for 

 securing the portability of specimens. At present, however, when 

 the value of the microscope, not merely as an aid, but even as the 

 most reliable guide for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, in many 

 forms of disease, is becoming almost universally recognized, some 

 means of transporting urinary and other deposits, tumours, &c, over 

 long distances, in the unaltered condition, has become a great 

 desideratum. As a contribution towards this important object, I 

 offer to the profession the subjoined method, originally contrived to 

 meet the exigencies of a recent case in my own practice. 



The clinical history in this particular instance, being accurately 

 noted by the patient himself, a highly intelligent physician, gives 

 such an exquisite picture of one form of the special renal malady in 

 question, that I am confident most of my auditors will feel some 

 interest in its relation, which is briefly as follows : — 



About the 20th of August last, I received a letter from Dr. , 



residing in one of the trans -Mississippi States, informing me that 

 he had forwarded to my address two specimens of deposit let fall from 

 samples of his own urine, which he wished me to examine. In 

 speaking of his condition, he remarked : — 



" I am forty years of age, and for the last four years my health 

 and strength have been steadily failing. From my normal weight 

 of 165 pounds, I have declined gradually to 132, at the rate of 

 about eight pounds per annum. My condition at first was attri- 

 buted to malarial fever, but this cause has not involved the case for 



