316 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Sept. 



MEDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



Examination of the Urine. — I know from personal ex- 

 perience that fully ninety per cent, of the physicians in 

 gfeneral practice with whom I am acquainted either do not 

 know how to examine urine or do not do so. I have been 

 told by men old in the profession that they never looked 

 throug-h a microscope. For these there is the excuse of 

 lack of education in the useof the microscope, butthereis not 

 the shadow of an excuse for the young- man who once told 

 me that he had graduated six years before and found it 

 unnecessary to use his microscope in g-eneral practice. — 

 University Medical Mag-azine. 



The Blood in General Paralysis. — Dr. Joseph A. Capps 

 summarizes his researches as follows : In general paraly- 

 sis, 1, the hemog"lobin and red corpuscles are always di- 

 minished: 2, the specific gravity falls slightly below the 

 normal ; 3, most cases show a slight leucocytosis, amount- 

 ing- on an average to about 22 per cent, above the normal. 

 Early cases may have no leucocytosis whatever. 4, in the 

 differential count a decrease is found in the lymphocytes 

 along with a marked increase in the large mononuclear 

 cells. The eosinophiles in a few cases are very numer- 

 ous. In convulsions and apoplectiform attacks, 1, The 

 red corpuscles and hemoglobin are usually increased at 

 the time of a convulsion. During an apoplectic attack of 

 long duration they are bothsomewhatdiminished. 2, thespe- 

 cific g-ravity is variable, sometimes increasing-, sometimes 

 diminishing- at the time of an attack; 3, there is a leucocy- 

 tosis after convulsion and apoplectic attacks, which is as 

 sudden as it is usually pronounced. It certainly does not 

 appear until within a very short time preceding the con- 

 vulsion, probably not before it actually takes place ; 4, the 

 degree of leucocytosis and the period of its continuance, as 

 a rule, vary directly with the length and severity of the 

 attack; 5, in the production of the leucocytosis the larg-e 

 mononuclear cells are increased relatively more than any 

 other variety; 6, the fact after convulsions and apoplectic 



