200 PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



Recent Foreign Pampers. — Professor Strieker's ' New Year-Book of 

 Medicine,' of which two parts have been published, contains a series 

 of valuable papers on microscopy. Among them may be mentioned 

 the following : — There is one by Dr. Hansen on the results of inflam- 

 mation in the corneal tissue ; another by Dr. Giiterbock on the eflfects 

 of inflammation of tendons ; by Dr. Yeo on the pathology of inflamed 

 lymphatic glands ; by Strieker himself on the nature of the poison of 

 pus, and another paper in conjunction with Dr. Albert — an accoimt 

 of traumatic fever ; Dr. Lang gives the pathology of inflammation of 

 the bones, and Dr. Kimdrat a paper on the inflammatory changes in 

 the endothelia of serous membranes. 



Besearches on Inflammation and Suppuration. — At a meeting of the 

 Eoyal Irish Academy, held on May 8th, Dr. J. M. Purser read the 

 second part of his report on the above subject. It is reported by the 

 ' British Medical Journal,' which gives a very full account of the 

 paper. Herr Cohnheim believes that the two following propositions 

 are established as the result of his investigations : — 1. In an inflamed 

 part, the white corpuscles of the blood pass through the walls of the 

 vessels in great numbers, and, having become free in the tissue, con- 

 stitute the cells of pus. 2. The cells of the inflamed part itself have 

 no share in the foi-mation of pus ; they persist for a time unchanged 

 among the emigrated blood-corpuscles, and, if the inflammation last 

 long enough, or attain a great intensity, they undergo a series of 

 changes of a pm'ely regressive or degenerative nature, ending in their 

 death or destruction. Dr. Purser, in the first part of his report, read 

 twelve mouths since, stated that his own observations fully bore out 

 Professor Cohnheim's views as enunciated in the first of the above- 

 quoted propositions. So far back as the year 1846, Dr. Augustus 

 Waller had described the passage of the leucocytes of the blood through 

 the walls of the vessels. With regard to the second proposition of the 

 German physiologist, however, Dr. Pm*ser found that the experiments 

 conducted by himself gave negative results, and in them he was borne 

 out by the opinions of Virchow and of' Goodsir. Having described 

 Professor Cohnheim's mode of procedure in experimenting on the 

 corneal and tongues of frogs, Dr. Purser proceeded to give in detail 

 the results which he had himself obtained. His observations were also 

 made on the cornefe and tongues of frogs. Inflammation was excited 

 either by cauterization with nitrate of silver, or by the insertion of a 

 seton. In some instances, the occurrence of a spontaneous ulcerative 

 keratitis obviated the necessity of causing irritation. Phenomena, 

 essentially the same in kind, but varying much in degree and as to the 

 time of theii' development, showed themselves in every case. On no 

 occasion did the connective-tissue cells remain unaltered among the 

 pus-corpuscles. The first well-marked change observed in the former 

 consisted in a tendency to become elongated, and, in doing so, to lose 

 their equally stellate shape. Theii- nuclei underwent a similar modi- 

 fication of form, and the protoplasm assumed a more decidedly granular 

 appearance than in health. In the next stage of the inflammatory 

 process, tlie cells have completely lost their primitive form, and have 

 become perfect sinndle-shapcd bodies, while the nimiber of nuclei 



