394 THE EXCRETIONS: 



the ordinary water-brash. The most remarkable of these is 

 the appearance of a microscopic cryptogamic plant (sarcina 

 ventriculi), and of acetic, lactic, and carbonic acids in the 

 liquid. The first case in which these were found, occurred 

 to Mr. Goodsir, and was published by him in the ( Edin- 

 burgh Medical and Surgical Journal' for April 1842. Since 

 that period a case has occurred in the practice of Mr. Ben- 

 jamin Bell of Edinburgh, who allowed Mr. Goodsir and 

 Dr. Wilson to examine the fluid ejected by his patient, in which 

 the same organism and acids were discovered ; and Mr. Busk, 

 of the Dreadnought hospital ship, Greenwich, has published the 

 history of three cases where the sarcina presented itself, but no 

 analysis was made of the fluids in which it appeared. 



On examining the fluid with the microscope, the sarcina is 

 found to present the following characters. 1 In every instance 

 the organisms presented themselves in the form of square or 

 slightly oblong transparent plates, of a pale yellow or brown 

 colour, and varying in size from the 800th to the 1000th of 

 an inch. They were made up of cells, the walls of which ap- 

 peared rigid, and could be perceived passing from one flat sur- 

 face to another as dissepiments. These dissepiments, as well 

 as the transparent spaces, were, from compression of contiguity, 

 rectilinear, and all the angles right angles ; but the bounding 

 cells bulged somewhat irregularly on the edges of the organism, 

 by reason of the freedom from pressure. These circumstances 

 gave the whole organism the appearance of a woolpack, or of a 

 soft bundle bound with cord, crossing it four times at right 

 angles, and at equal distances. From these very striking pe- 

 culiarities of form, Mr. Goodsir has proposed for it the generic 

 name of SARCINA. 2 



On examining the ejected fluid in the case recorded by Mr. 

 Goodsir, it was found to possess the following characters. It 

 was thick and viscid ; on standing, it deposited a large quantity 

 of ropy matter mixed with portions of undigested food, and, 

 when filtered through paper, had a pale brownish yellow colour, 

 and was quite transparent. It still contained much animal 



1 The reader is referred to the ' Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal ' for 

 April 1842, for a more minute description of the sarcina, and a detailed account of 

 the chemical analysis of the liquid containing it. 



2 Sarcina, a pack or woolpack. 



