PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES, 
283 
fully realized, and tho attention manifested throughout is a proof that 
such a subject is capable, when properly treated, of being made inte- 
resting to the non-medical public as well as to the profession. 
Some time having been spent in viewing the objects under the 
microscopes, and in easy chit-chat upon them, the chair was taken by 
the President, Dr. A. Thom Thomson, who briefly introduced the lec- 
turer, who said that, while remembering that the microscopical study 
of disease was almost entirely confined to the profession to which he 
belonged, he thought such a paper as he was now to read, which aimed 
simply at giving a sketch of what was interesting in the use to which 
a busy medical man put his microscope, might prove acceptable to the 
non-professional members of the Society. The introduction of the 
microscope, he need hardly say, heralded a new era in medical science. 
The microscopical examination of tissues in health and disease upset 
many a pet theory, and cleared up much that was before all obscurity 
and doubt. Although not entirely to be relied upon, it was undoubt- 
edly a valuable aid in the detection of disease. Suppose, for instance, 
he was called to a patient who had vomited blood from the stomach, 
and he had no certain means of determining what was the condition of 
that organ. Well, he would put a little of the blood under his micro- 
scope, and might find that it contained certain cells which characterize 
cancerous or other diseases, and this discovery would influence the 
treatment of the case. Before commencing the subject of his paper 
proper, he would give a brief description of the various structural ele- 
ments of which the body was composed, namely, granules, cells, fibres, 
membranes, &c. Passing by the granular matter, he proceeded to 
describe the various cells of which the tissues are built up. Pus, or 
matter taken from abscesses, he described as composed of circular cells, 
somewhat larger than the blood corpuscles, and granular in appear- 
ance, and stated that, when treated with acetic acid, several nuclear 
bodies were visible in their centres. These cells are frequently to be 
met in the examination of diseased tissues and secretions. When 
viewed under high powers they display peculiar movements, and have 
the power to throw out protusions, which rapidly separate themselves, 
and develop into new cells. Pus cells he viewed as forms of growing 
matter degraded from its proper use, namely, that of forming tissues, 
but which is increased in vitality, and, as a consequence, multiplies 
itself more rapidly. Blood contained a large number of red, and a 
smaller proportion of white corpuscles, the latter identical in appear- 
ance with the pus corpuscle. In health the proportion is about one 
white to fifty red, while in some diseases the white become much more 
numerous ; in extreme cases being nearly as prevalent as the red. In 
cholera, and in some kidney diseases, the red corpuscles have a ten- 
dency to adhere to each other. The character of the spit, when micro- 
scopically examined, frequently enables the practitioner to determine 
the character of the disease from which a patient is suffering. Healthy 
spit is often very much charged with extraneous matter ; such, for in- 
stance, as silk and cotton fibres, from the articles of clothing, feathers, 
starch, particles of food, dust, &c. In all spit they found mucus, which 
consists of a viscid mass, containing cells of various shapes and sizes. 
VOL. VIII. Y 
