74.2 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS* 
probably be glad to receive, from authorities on the subject, 
some expression of opinion on this interesting case.— British 
Medical Journal . 
Prize on Nervous Diseases. —A bequest of 10,000 
francs has been made to the Academy of Medicine in Paris 
by M. Falret, for the purpose of founding a prize on mental 
and nervous diseases.— The British Medical Journal. 
Presence of Pyrocatechin in Kino. —The author 
contends that pyrocatechin is contained in the sap of the 
plants from which kino is prepared, and that it is not formed 
during its preparation, which simply consists in boiling down 
the sap, since the temperature at which this operation takes 
place cannot greatly exceed 100°. The residues from the 
ethereal extract of kino-gums from various sources, dissolved 
in water, gave in all cases the characteristic pyrocatechin 
reaction, viz., a grass-green coloration on the addition of 
ferric chloride, converted into red by lime-water.— Journal 
of the Chemical Society. 
Pathology in Verse. —The Siglo Medico of Madrid 
announced a work on Internal Pathology, by Don Jose 
Zalabardo. The author states that it is on a level with the 
present state of science.— Ibid. 
The Pathology of the Chignon. —M. Lindeman con¬ 
tinues his investigation of the parasitic bodies (Gregarinidie, 
found on the false tresses and chignons commonly worn by 
ladies. They are to be found at the extremity of the hairs, 
and form there little nodosities, visible, on careful examina¬ 
tion, to the naked eye. Each of those nodosities represents 
a colony of about fifty psorosperms. Each psorosperm is 
spherical; but, by the reciprocal pressure of its neighbours, 
it is flattened, and becomes discoid. Under the influence of 
heat and moisture, it swells; its granular contents are trans¬ 
formed into little spheres, and then into pseudo-navicellae— 
little fusiform corpuscles, with a persistent external mem¬ 
brane, and enclosing one or two nuclei. These pseudo- 
navicellae become free, float in the air, penetrate into the in¬ 
terior of the human organism, reach the circulatory appa¬ 
ratus, and produce, according to this author, various mala¬ 
dies —cardiac affections, especially valvular affections, 
Bright's disease, pulmonary affections." M. Lindeman cal¬ 
culates that, in a ball-room containing fifty ladies, 45,000,000 
of navicellae are set free; and he concludes that it is neces¬ 
sary to abolish false hair, which often proceeds from unclean 
persons.— Ibid. 
