148 EXTRACTS AND ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 



[From the Medicinische Zeitung, 1842.] 



Simon on the presence of living Animals in the Tubercles of Acne punc- 

 tata. It is generally believed that the tubercles of Acne punctata have 

 their seat in the sebaceous crypts of the skin, but according to M. Simon, 

 they more particularly effect the piliferous bulbs. He is led to this 

 opinion from the fact of hairs being often present in the matter squeezed 

 from them, even as many as fourteen having been observed. 



Another peculiarity not less interesting is the existence of living ani- 

 mals in the same matter. These microscopic animalcules (of which 

 our author has examined as many as forty individuals) have ordinarily 

 a length of -^-^th to -g^th of a line, and a breadth of -a-^Q-th. At the 

 anterior portion of the body four pairs of feet, each foot having three 

 articulations, are seen, the first articulations being provided with three 

 delicate uncini. On the posterior portion of the head exists two bi-ar- 

 ticulate mobile organs, between which is a sucker having two bristles. 

 The posterior portion of the body is ordinarily very much elongated, 

 and rounded at its termination, whilst in a few instances it is shorter and 

 ending in a point. 



According to the entomologists of Berlin, these creatures are Acari 

 in the primary period of their development. The presence of them ac- 

 cording to M. Simon, is not always constant in the disease under dis- 

 cussion. 



In order to examine them, the matter prepared from the tubercles 

 must be spread out by compression between two plates of glass, but in 

 doing so care must be taken that the animals are not crushed, and the 

 better to prevent which is, to place two delicate stripes of caoutchouc 

 between the plates near their edge. In this manner they may be pre- 

 served alive several hours in a drop of oil, and their movements studied 

 by aid of the microscope. No. 9. 



[From the Journal de Pharmacia et de Chimie.~\ 



Soubeiran and Henry on the adulteration of Milk. It has lately been 

 widely promulgated that a new method of adulterating milk has been 

 adopted by adding to it, after the cream has been removed, a certain 

 quantity of the brain of the calf or sheep. This was afterwards de- 

 nied by the paper that at first announced it, but failed to quiet a great 

 portion of the population of Paris, as the use of milk is almost univer- 

 sal. It was therefore necessary to destroy this false impression, and 

 became urgent to find out means for the detection of the adulteration, 

 supposing that it was effected in a single instance. In a memoir on 

 this subject, read at the Academy Royal of Medicine by Gaultier de 

 Claubry, several characters were given, derived from the physical pro- 

 perties of adulterated milk, compared with those of unadulterated liquid, 

 as seen under the microscope as well as from analytical inquiry. 

 Charged conjointly with Rocheux to make a report on the subject, we 

 have been able to establish the exactitude of the greater portion of the 

 assertion of G. de. Claubry, but at the same time it has been very evi- 

 dent to us that the procedures offer in their execution some difficulties, 



