DE. E. KLEIN ON THE SMALLPOX OE SHEEP. 
227 
In the sweat-glands and hair-follicles the epithelial cells show also the opaque swelling 
due to their containing Micrococci. 
Between epidermis and corium of those places where there is the least microscopical 
change there are constantly semilunar spaces of different diameters to be seen, the convex 
surface of which corresponds to the elevation of the papillae. These spaces contain 
Micrococci imbedded in a transparent fluid. In those pocks in which the formation of 
pustules is going on, the corium becomes gradually penetrated by the elements which 
have been previously in the epidermis, viz. Micrococci and nuclei ; thus the boundary 
between epidermis and corium gradually loses its sharpness. The papillae show sometimes 
in their longitudinal axis an infiltration of fine granules. 
In the deeper parts of the corium larger or smaller tracts present themselves, formed 
partly by larger spherical cells and partly (seldom though) by a finely granular sub- 
stance. Luginbuhl therefore makes the whole process start in the epidermis, and hence 
gradually to extend into the corium. These statements are, according to my obser- 
vations of variola of sheep, wholly inconsistent with the facts occurring in this latter 
disease, which, as is well known, is in clinical and anatomical respects very similar if 
not analogous to smallpox of Man. 
The results of the examination of smallpox of Man obtained by Auspitz and Basch are 
described by Neumann*, who confirms fully the observations of these authors, in this 
way : — In papules, on the second day of their appearance, the epidermis is elevated, 
apparently from the increased thickness of the rete Malpighii, the individual cells of 
which are larger than those of the neighbouring normal parts; their nuclei are 
enlarged. The vessels in the corium, those in the papillary region as well as those 
beneath it, are distended ; on their walls are numerous small roundish cells, and similar 
cells are .found in the stroma of the papillae. The papillae and glands are unchanged. 
The structure of the vesicles and the pustules is thus described : — Under the stratum 
corneum of the epidermis there is a layer of longitudinal cells, which merge uninter- 
ruptedly into the roundish or flattened and distinctly swollen cells of the rete Malpighii ; 
beneath this a mesh work is seen, which is nearer to the stratum corneum than to the 
corium, and occupies a great part of the breadth of the vesicles, but does not extend 
deeply. This mesh-like structure consists of transverse septa of fine fibrous tissue, which 
are evidently formed of the compressed spindle-shaped cells of the hypertrophied rete 
Malpighii ; in its interstices pus-cells are imbedded, some of the large vesicles containing 
ten or more small cells. Under this mesh-like structure and extending between the 
papillae there are found roundish cells, which either resemble those of the meshw'ork 
or the swollen Malpighian cells. The underlying papillae appear broader, and those in 
the immediate vicinity of the vesicles lengthened. Proliferation of cells is observed 
around the vessels. 
The meshwork extends gradually towards the corium, and increases in width from the 
centre to the periphery ; in the interstices there are round cells. 
* See ‘Textbook of Skin Diseases/ by Dr. Neumans, translated by Dr. Pullab, London, 1871, p. 74. 
