1883.] MR. J. B. SUTTON ON THE DISEASES OF MONKEYS. 



585 



so marked a feature in mollities ossium in human beings may result 

 from a similar conditiou of the spinal column. 



The principal cause of rickets in Monkeys is the fact that many 

 of them are captured when quite young, and in lieu of the breast- 

 milk of the mother are fed on fruits, rice, and cows' milk. 



It may be mentioned here that the Royal College of Surgeons 

 possesses a Hunterian preparation of a rickety Monkey. 



Fig. 1. 



Vertebra of Pachyacanthus, showing the narrow spinal canal (after Gervais, I.e.). 



Fig. 2. 



Transverse section of the vertebral column with the cord in situ, to show the 

 mode in which the cord gets compressed by overgrowth of the sm'- 

 rounding bone. Prom a Monkey. 



The Milk-white Patch, In conducting human post-mortems it is 

 very usual to find on the anterior surface of the heart a thickening of 

 the visceral layer of the pericardium, technically known as the " milk- 

 white patch," concerning the causation of which pathologists have held 

 two opposite notions. One opinion is that the thickened area is the 

 result of chronic inflammation. The other and more probable view 

 holds that it is due to pressure : this is called the " attrition " theory. 



