Rotjal Mteroscojncal Society. 63 



the foot, so much confusion of parts existed, that the muscular, 

 fibrous, and other tissues seemed to be blended in a gelatinous mass ; 

 on removing portions of the bony mass, the cancellated interspaces, 

 which were much larger than usual, were occupied by numerous 

 whitish granular bodies, somewhat resembling millet seeds. These 

 bodies, which are described by Dr. Carter as pink in the fresh 

 foot, were apparently mixed up with a crystalline material. But 

 fatty matter so predominated that it was almost impossible to free 

 any section from it, without resorting to boiUng in aether, or 

 liquor potassae. When boiling in the latter was continued for a 

 few minutes, nearly the whole was held in solution, the residue 

 being a very small quantity of fibrous tissue. Even fragments of 

 bone almost disappeared when treated in the same way ; whereas, 

 if the spores and mycelium of a fungus are subjected to the same 

 process, the fragments that remain enable us to recognize them 

 without difficulty. Fungi resist the action of boiling fluids as 

 they do prolonged and intense cold, so that we need be under no 

 apprehension of losing all trace of them, if they ever had an 

 existence, while subjecting animal matters to the crucial test of 

 boiling in destructive reagents. A prolonged and exceedingly 

 careful microscopical examination yielded only negative results, so 

 far as fungi were concerned. The cells and fibres which Dr. Carter 

 says " are imbedded in black masses of matter," could nowhere be 

 traced ; neither could I see " the fish-roe-like substances made up 

 of defaced fungus structure." The little rounded bodies in this 

 specimen were not uniform in structure, and were mostly imbedded 

 in a gelatinous fatty matter in the interspaces of the bones. The 

 pigment of the skin, generally so abundant in the black races, was 

 entirely removed; while the papillae were so much hypertrophied, 

 swollen up, that all trace of ordinary structure seemed lost, not 

 even a perfect epithelial cell remaining. The extraordinary way in 

 which the pigment had disappeared induced me to think that even 

 " black fungus masses " might owe much of their colour to 

 disintegrated pigment granules, and even take up new forms in 

 the interspaces of the metamorphosed muscular and fibrous tissues. 

 Portions of the subfilamentous material presented, at first sight, an 

 appearance somewhat resembling ciliated epithelium ; these masses 

 easily separated and floated about, and there was no nucleus seen, and 

 only a sHght fibrillation. Fat abounded and was often arranged 

 and massed in cells, in which were groups of smaller corpuscles, 

 in some instances presenting a false appearance of nucleated cells. 

 The subcutaneous infiltration of fatty matter, and the disintegra- 

 tion of nervous matter, muscular and other tissues occasioned 

 thereby, gave to all the specimens examined a confused resemblance ; 

 and although some few bodies of " a spindle shape" were seen, it 

 would require a considerable stretch of imagination to beheve that 



F 2 



