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H. F. Formad, 



of scrofulous persons that inflammatory processes in such persons 

 terminate ultimately in the formation of cheesy matter at the seat of 

 injury. The general impression among pathologists and clinicians is 

 that the lymphatic apparatus is in some way at fault in these persons, 

 although there are no direct anatomical observations on this point on 

 record. I thought that the minute anatomy of the tissues of such 

 persons should be investigated, and at once began to collect the ne- 

 cessary material. This presented itself to me in abundance daily in 

 the post-mortem rooms. For the study of scrofulous and other animal 

 tissue, I had also unusually large opportunity. Having the good for- 

 tune to be associated with Prof. H. C. Wood in the research on diph- 

 theria for the National Board of Health for the last three years, I of 

 necessity had to examine microscopically the tissues of about five 

 hundred animals (as the records show), and also those of a similar 

 or still larger number of various animals used by members of my 

 classes in experimental pathology in the University laboratory during 

 the last five years. But few of the animals referred to were killed 

 expressly for this purpose; they served various purposes, but we al- 

 ways were careful to trace and note the histological points in question. 



At first only one peculiarity struck me in the anatomy of scro- 

 fulous and rickety children, and this peculiarity is in common with 

 that of the rabbit and guinea-pig, — viz., in all scrofulous beings all 

 the organs supposed to be concerned in the production of white blood- 

 corpuscles were disproportionately large, — i. e., in relation to the 

 size of the animals Subsequent studies of the tissues revealed, in 



1 ) 0. C. Robinson says in connection with this point, „In studying the anatomy 

 of the animals experimented upon, Dr. H. F. Formad directed my attention to a 

 peculiarity in the structure of the blood-making organs of the two species of animals 

 named, particularly the latter; and I have myself also had frequent opportunity to 

 observe the following: the lymphatic glands are disproportionately large; the Malpi- 

 ghian bodies of the spleen are larger and more numerous than in other animals, 

 though the organ itself is not large ; the marrow of bone is usually red , and con- 

 tains very little fat; the thymus gland is always of considerable size, and seems 

 never to disappear, or, in fact, has never been found absent. Besides these pecu- 

 liarities, I have frequently seen small heterotopic lymphatic structures in the inter, 

 stitial connective tissue in various parts of the body. The question arises whether 

 this evidently leucaemic condition of these animals has not something to do with 



