12 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 
[Biolog. 
Dr. J. C. Morris narrated the singular case of a ladj,bj whom a considerable 
amount of chloroform was inhaled to relieve morbid vigilance, producing the 
appearance of sleep, and even stertorous respiration, yet without annulling con- 
sciousness ; as was shown by her soon re-acquiriag the power of motion, and 
describing the movements made by those about her. There seemed here to be 
a retention of sensibility, with a loss of voluntary motion. 
Dr. Woodward had noticed similar phenomena in persons using chloroform 
by inhalation as an intoxicating agent. He had known several persons, one a 
medical man, who were in the habit, for months together, of using it in this 
manner every day after dinner. In all of these there appeared to be a loss of 
muscular power with retention of consciousness. 
Dr. H. Hartshornb had formed the opinion that the principal action of chlo- 
roform is upon the cerebro-spinal axis, resembling, in its suddenness of effect in 
fatal cases, some of the experiments of Wilson Philip, and others, in which im- 
mediate arrest of the heart's action was produced by destroying the brain with 
a hammer, or the spinal cord by inserting a heated rod into the canal. The 
destruction of the spinal marrow will produce, also, general relaxation of the 
voluntary muscles. At the same time, the cases mentioned suggest the proba- 
bility that the influence of chloroform may be exerted upon the different nerve- 
centres in greater or less degree in different cases. It is not impossible that 
fatal anaesthesia of the medulla oblongata, destroying life by arrest of respira- 
tion, might occur, without prior annihilation of sensorial consciousness. 
3Iay 3d. Dr. Leidy exhibited a drawing of the Echinococcus hominifs, commonly 
known under the name of hydatid. The specimen from which it was taken was 
found in a tumor seated in the muscles of the right iliac region, which had 
been supposed to consist of impacted fneces in the colon. The patient had been 
dead several days, when the body was injected with chloride of zinc ; yet two 
days afterwards the parasites were still alive. None of the injection, however, 
had come into contact with it, as it had no direct communication with the body. 
The Echinococcus is the larval form of a tape worm. Dr. Leidy described its 
mode of propagation and of locating itself in the body. 
3Iai/ Vlth. Dr. J. J. Woodward read a paper* describing three cancerous 
tumors, which displayed interesting peculiarities, illustrating one mode of 
development of carcinoma from a liquid blastema, enveloped in a cyst. The 
paper opposed the opinion expressed by Rokitansky, that cancer is essentially 
an albuminosis. 
Dr. Leidy exhibited a minnow, caught in the Schuylkill, having disease of 
the scales of the upper part of the head and about the orbit. The scales were 
dilated, and filled with delicate organic cells, much resembling carcinomatous 
cells. They were certainly not confervoid or fungous, but were purely patho- 
logical, and thus of interest as a specimen of diseased formation in a fish. Dis- 
ease, in the inferior animals, and even in plants, is deserving of study by medical 
men, since it may throw light upon the nature of disease in man. 
June 7tli. — Dr. Henry Hartshorne read a paper '■^On the hearing of Physiolo- 
gy on Paleontology.''^ Referred to a special Committee. 
Dr. J. J. Woodward made the following verbal communication, in regard to 
the ^'Examination of a fungous groioth upon the head of a Hydrargyra fasciata,''^ 
caught in the Schuylkill river, and referred to him by Dr. Leidy at the last 
meeting of the Department. 
This fish presented a dark greenish blue fungous mass upon its head, and 
several greenish discolorations on various parts of its body. Examination 
showed the mass to consist of a cryptogamous plant, in the meshes of which 
loosened and partially disentegrated cells from the epithelium of the scales 
were abundantly entangled. The dark color was due to the presence of isolated 
* See Am. Journ. of Med. Sciences, July, 1858. 
[June, 
