486 



Mr. H. T. Butlin. 



[Apr. 24, 



Microscopical examination of the resnlts of such scraping gives, in 

 nearly every instance, the same resnlts. 



1. Debris of food and bubbles of mucus and saliva. 



2. Epithelium. 



3. Masses which appear at first to consist of granular matter, but 

 which are the gicea of certain forms of schizomycetes. When large 

 and closely packed they are of yellow or yellowish-brown colour, but 

 when smaller and more loosely held together are almost colourless. 

 They are generally attached to portions of the hair-like processes 

 which have come away with them, on account of the tenacity with 

 which they adhere to the processes. Vertical sections of hardened 

 tongues show the relation of these masses to the filiform papillae 

 better than mere scrapings of the surface of the tongue. The filiform 

 papilla?, instead of exhibiting fine, clean, tapering processes, terminate 

 in processes which are uneven, tuberculated, or beaded, and blunted at 

 their ends, owing to the presence of these bodies. Around the 

 masses float free fungi, often exhibiting very active movement. The 

 relative proportion of the three constituents of fur varies under 

 certain conditions. The quantity of debris of food and bubbles is 

 much greater during or immediately after eating than during fasting, 

 although there is no corresponding increase of the fur at such times. 

 The epithelium is much more abundant in thin fur than in thick fur, 

 its quantity depending rather upon the vigour with which the tongue 

 is scraped than upon the amount of fur present. It can be obtained 

 in just as great quantity where no fur is present, provided the tongue 

 be closely scraped. The schizomycetes are found in every case in 

 which there is fur upon the surface of the tongue, and I have even 

 found a little of the gloea where no fur was perceptible to the naked 

 eye. The quantity of gloea depends roughly upon the quantity of 

 fur. The position of the gloea corresponds with the position of the 

 fur. The fur dots the tops of the filiform papillae, and the gloea is- 

 attached to the processes of these papilla?. Fresh scrapings of fur 

 show this relation of the gloea to the filiform papillae, but vertical 

 sections of hardened tongues show more than this. They show that 

 the filiform papilla? are the sole seat of the gloea, which does not exist 

 between the papillae, and seldom upon the fungiform papilla?. Again, 

 the colour and appearance of the thin grey fur corresponds with the 

 colour and appearance of the thin grey pellicle which forms upon the 

 surface of Bacterium -producing fluids, and as the latter becomes 

 whiter and more opaque as it becomes thicker, so does the fur become 

 whiter and more opaque with increased thickness. A modification of 

 colour is, however, frequently produced by the yellow or brownish- 

 yellow tint of the gloea. 



In order to ascertain the true nature of the gloea, and to obtain it 

 in a much purer form than that in which it exists naturally upon the 



