Progress of Rational Pathology. 2iu 



rheumatism, haemorrhoids, ague. Cruveilhier as well as R. 

 have remarked the resemblance of dysenteric degeneration 

 to the corrosion of mucous membranes by acids. 



/. Aphthae. — Taupin comprehends under the name of sto- 

 matitis gangrenosa pseudo-membranous and ulcerated aphthse, 

 and gangrene of the mouth : but it is only the first that 

 can be epidemic or contagious. He considers the chief 

 predisposing cause to be the impure damp air of hospitals ; 

 it belongs especially to the period of life between five and ten 

 years of age. The degeneration commonly begins at the free 

 edges of the gums, and seldom on the cheeks. Taupin, 

 therein differing from Guersent, never found the mucous 

 membrane sound under the slough, but always ulcerated. 

 In these false membranes many observers have remarked 

 minute fungi. Besides them other microscopic elements have 

 been observed indicative of an inflammatory process ; elemen- 

 tary granules, exsudatory corpuscles, inflammatory globules, 

 and at a later period fibres standing together in groups, 

 running into short points at both ends, with long drawn-out 

 granules, which lengthen into indistinct fibres : between 

 them, irregular masses of finely granulated or of fibrous sub- 

 stance — probably of fibrine. 



g. Ophthalmias. — From the researches of Cederschjold, a 

 discharge from the generative organs of women appears to be 

 one of the most frequent causes of ophthalmia neonatorum, 

 since the proportion of children with diseased eyes to those 

 with healthy ones, born of healthy mothers, is as 1 : 18 5 of 

 those born of unhealthy mothers, as 1 : 7. The Egyptian 

 or contagious ophthalmia is, according to Eble, on the 

 whole identical in nature with catarrhal conjunctivitis : he 

 declares for its primitive origin, and considers the most im- 

 portant cause of its production to be the congregating of too 

 many people in a narrow space. As to contagiousness, he 

 thinks that it is contagious to a limited extent, that infection 



2 K 



