484 



CHAPTER XIII. 



FLUID PRODUCTS OF DISEASE. 



HYDATIDS are round vesicles filled with fluid, sometimes but 

 not always containing a minute animal (echinococcus) ; these 

 vesicles occur most commonly in the brain and liver. Gobel 

 analysed hydatids from the liver of a goat ; the echinococcus 

 was present in large numbers; the fluid contained in the 

 vesicles was clear, yellow, neutral, gave off an unpleasant odour 

 during evaporation, and blackened a silver spatula with which 

 it was stirred. It yielded l*54g of solid residue consisting of 

 04 albumen, 0-24 mucus, and 1*26 salts, namely, carbonate of 

 soda, chloride of sodium, sulphate of potash, and phosphate of 

 lime. The vesicle itself was insoluble in water and alcohol, 

 yielded a little fat to ether, swelled in acetic acid without dis- 

 solving, but dissolved in a solution of caustic potash, from 

 which it could be precipitated by the addition of acetic acid. 



Collard de Martigny has likewise analysed hydatids. The 

 fluid contained in them was faintly yellow, and somewhat turbid 

 from the presence of flocculi of albumen, which soon settled to 

 the bottom. Boiling produced a marked turbidity in conse- 

 quence of the coagulation of albumen. It contained water 

 96-5, albumen 2'9, and salts, for the most part chloride of 

 sodium, 0*6. 



The membrane enclosing the fluid was divisible into five 

 laminse, was insoluble in ether, alcohol, and boiling water, but 

 dissolved, even without the aid of heat, in sulphuric, hydro- 

 chloric, and nitric acids, from which it was not precipitated on 

 neutralization with a free alkali ; it was not dissolved by acetic 

 acid, and was rendered leathery by infusion of galls. 



[Scherer has analysed the fluid contained in hydatids of the 

 kidney. It was of a brownish yellow colour, threw down a 



