374 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PATHOLOGY AND 
matter was of a straw colour, and closely resembled old cheese. 
Intermixed with this substance were small portions of substance of 
a light pea-green colour. One or two smaller cavities were con- 
tiguous to the large one, which also contained the tuberculous 
deposit. Some straw-coloured lymph was also present in the 
bronchial tubes leading to these cavities, and it was by a similar 
deposit of straw-coloured lymph that the lung was retained to the 
pleura. I removed at least eight or ten ounces of this substance 
from the surface of the pleura ; but the pleura itself did not present 
the least change in any part: it was not injected, nor rough, nor 
thickened in any way. Every other portion of the lungs was 
perfectly normal. 
Nervous Centres. — I carefully opened the cranium, and the whole 
of the vertebral column : the membranes of the brain were in- 
tensely congested; so much so, indeed, that when the brain was 
held out at arm’s length, the organ appeared as though it had been 
painted with black paint. Between the pia-mater and the brain a 
layer of serum was deposited — a deposit of serum also existed be- 
tween the cranium and the membrane below it, also at the base of 
the brain : here, however, it was not very considerable. The whole 
of the membranes separated with the greatest ease from one another, 
and from the brain itself. I passed my index finger under the 
pia-mater, and the slightest force sufficed to make it peel away : 
the membranes were more like wet paper than fibrous tissues. The 
lateral ventricles of the brain were also filled with serum, and the 
plexus choroides were intensely congested and much softened ; the 
colour of the brain when the serum was washed away was re- 
markably clear and good , and its structure was firm and normal 
in every respect. The whole of the membranes investing the 
spinal marrow were also intensely congested, particularly from the 
bottom of the cervical vertebrae to the end of the lumbar region : a 
deposit of serum existed the whole length of the spinal marrow , i. e . 
between it and the membrane immediately surrounding it. The 
spinal marrow itself was of good colour, and very firm in its 
substance. 
Circulatory Organs, ^c. — The heart and the large vessels, including 
the arteries and veins, were perfectly healthy, as also were the 
muscles of animal life. 
Remarks. — In sending forth this contribution, I may remark, 
that I have perhaps little, if any thing, of interest, to offer respecting 
puerperal diseases, i. e. so far as those diseases are limited to the 
various forms of fever which the parturient process is apt to pro- 
duce. I possess, however, memoranda, and full records of a number 
of cases which, from time to time, have come under my care, some 
of which I now present to the reader. It is more than probable 
