410 DISEASED OF THE ARTERIES. 



'Embolism/ In a number of the Medical Times and Gazette 

 for January the 4th, of the current year, we find as follows: 



" The term ' Embolism ' has till lately been taken to mean 

 the impulsion of substances detached from the walls or valves 

 of the heart into various parts of the arterial system, most of 

 the cases noticed having to do with the cerebral arteries. 

 But now a new class of observers, with Professor Virchow at 

 their head, trace the offending body not only from the right 

 or left side of the heart to its destination, but from its far-off 

 nidus among diseased tissues whence it travels along the veins 

 to the heart. And it is proposed thus to account as well for 

 the deposition of morbid substances in distant and various 

 parts of the body, as fo'r a number of results now attributed 

 to other causes, but which are really the effects of obstruc- 

 tion of the arteries. We have before us a work, extending to 

 seven hundred octavo pages, in which the numerous bearings 

 of the subject are discussed with German copiousness and 

 precision. Its author, Dr B. Cohn, of the University of 

 Breslau, signalises his admiration of the renowned Berlin 

 Pathology Professor, by dividing time into the epoch before 

 Virchow that of Virchow himself, and that of the followers 

 of Virchow; and gives the result of six years' careful and 

 extensive observations on embolism, as his own contribution 

 to the literature of the last-named epoch. Our space forbids 

 us to give at present more than a slight sketch of the points 

 put forward and supported by a formidable array of facts in 

 this important work. 



" The proof of the existence of the agency in question is 

 grounded, first, on the presence of the conditions necessary 

 for it in all parts of the circulation, such as the coagulability 

 of the blood in all kinds of vessels. Next, on the facility 

 with which solid products in the vessels, when once formed, 

 can become detached. An endless variety of experiments 



