570 



THE MICROSCOPE. 



viscera, and especially in diseased livers. Fig. 256 repre- 

 sents the microscopical appearance of the contents of a cyst. 



Fig. 256. Cystic Disease of Liver. (Human). 



a, Cyst with an echinococcus enclosed. &, Detached booklets from the head of 

 Echinococcus, magnified 250 diameters, c, Crystals found in the cyst, choles- 

 terine. d, Cylindrical epithelium, some enclosed in structureless globules. 

 e, Puro-mucus, and fat corpuscles. 



Mr. Busk, who has examined several of these cysts, 

 says : "When a large hydatid cyst, for instance, in the 

 liver of the sheep, very shortly after the death of the 

 animal, is carefully opened by a very small puncture, so. as 

 to prevent at first the too rapid exit of the fluid, and con- 

 sequent collapse of the sac, its internal surface will be 

 found covered with minute granulations resembling grains 

 of sand. These bodies are not equally distributed over 

 the cyst, but are more thickly situated in some parts than 

 in others. They are detached with the greatest facility, 

 and on the slightest motion of the cyst, ; and are rarely 

 found adherent after a few days' delay. When detached, 

 they subside rapidly in the fluid, and consequently will 

 then be usually found collected in the lowest part of the 

 cyst, and frequently entangled in fragments of the inner 

 thin membrane. When some of these granulations are 

 placed between glass under the microscope, and viewed 

 with a power of 250 diameters, upon pressure being em- 

 ployed it will be seen, after rupture of the delicate enve- 

 loping membrane, that the Echinococci composing the gra- 

 nulations are all attached to a common central mass by 

 short pedicles ; which, as well as the central mass, appear 

 to be composed of a substance more coarsely granular by 



