182 Microscopical Fissures in the 



have two or three large spherical bodies like ova towards the 

 posterior half, the remaining portion being filled up with small 

 cells and granules. The cilia are raised on a substructure of a cave- 

 like appearance. The red blood corpuscles of the Muntjac agree in 

 size with those of the musk deer, being only about e 5 ^0 i^ich in 

 diameter, many of them on being placed on the glass slide assume 

 the curious semilunar form represented in the Plate (Fig. 3). I 

 have once or twice examined the blood of the Sambur deer for these 

 bodies, but have seen none. 

 Ceylon, 3fay, 1871. 



With reference to my communication in your Journal for Decem- 

 ber last, I have shown specimens to Mr. Thwaites, of the Botanical 

 Gardens in Kandy, and it is his opinion that the organisms can be 

 nothing but spores of some description of fungi. I am quite 

 certain that they existed imbedded in the muscular fibre, and were 

 not accidentally derived from without, and in the Plate facing page 

 48 of your Journal for February, in the present year, there are 

 some drawings of spores (Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 22, and 24), 

 the very counterparts of which I can show in specimens of mus- 

 cular tissue. 



IV. — Microscopical Fissures in the Masticating Surface of 

 Molars and Bicuspids. By J. H. M'Quillen, M.D., D.D.S., 

 Professor of Physiology in Philadelphia Dental College. 



In a recent communication to an American periodical attention 

 was directed to the fact that the minute openings or fissures found 

 in the grinding approximal, buccal, palatine, and lingual surfaces 

 of molars and bicuspids frequently lead to cavities of some size. 

 Through the kindness of my friend, Dr. E. W. Varney, of New 

 York, who placed in my hands some time since a number of micro- 

 scopical preparations, I have an opportunity of demonstrating in 

 the most conclusive manner the necessity of immediate attention to 

 such cases. 



In the accompanying illustration (which I had made of a 

 longitudinal section of an inferior molar, as seen under an xV o^" 

 jective and No. 1 eye-piece, magnifying sixty diameters), it will be 

 observed that a minute fissure, invisible to the naked eye in the 

 section, extends from the bottom of the sulcus on the grinding 

 surface of the tooth, through the enamel, almost to the dentine, 

 and enlarging at the lower part into an oval cavity. This is entirely 

 the result of defective formation, the enamel prisms having failed 

 to coalesce at that point, and thus a condition is presented favourable 



