OF DISEASE. 489 



[Girardin has recently made an analysis of the fluid in cer- 

 tain vesicles on the abdomen. 



In 1000 parts there were contained : 



Water . . . . 939-500 



Solid constituents . . . 60-500 



Albumen . . . 49-200 



Cholesterin . . . 6-475 



Alcohol-extract . . . 1-075 



Phosphates of soda and lime, and chloride 1 > ncn 1 



of sodium . . ./ 5 ' 75U -I 



Fluid of hygroma. I have examined the fluid of an hygroma 

 situated on the lower jaw of a horse. The fluid was almost 

 clear and transparent, but so extremely viscid that it could 

 be drawn out into long threads. Its reaction was alkaline. 

 Under the microscope a few very large mucus-corpuscles, three 

 or four times the ordinary size, could be observed, occurring 

 as round granular vesicles, in which, in consequence of the 

 opacity of the investing membrane, the nucleus could not be 

 detected. 



The fluid did not mix with water, but a separation of white 

 flocculi took place ; white gelatinous flocculi were likewise pre- 

 cipitated by alcohol. Ebullition rendered the fluid opaque, but 

 did not altogether coagulate it. 



The gelatinous mass precipitated by alcohol was boiled in 

 spirit of -848 and then warmed with water, in which it swelled 

 and became viscid without dissolving. On the addition of 

 acetic or hydrochloric acid to the swollen mass it coagulated 

 immediately into opaque fibrils. It was perfectly soluble in a 

 dilute solution of caustic potash with the aid of heat, and again 

 precipitable by acetic acid, without being soluble in an excess 

 of the reagent. Hydrochloric acid threw down a substance 

 which was immediately redissolved, and a peculiar odour of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen was evolved, just as when we add hydro- 

 chloric acid to an alkaline solution in which horn-shavings 

 have been digested. 



The hydrochloric-acid solution was scarcely rendered at all 

 turbid by ferrocyanide of potassium, but was strongly precipi- 

 tated by tannin. From these experiments it appeared that the 

 substance under examination was mucin. Alcohol took up a 

 very small quantity of chloride of sodium and lactate of soda 



