28 1< ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
as moniliform chains of two, four, eight, or a greater number 
of articles, forming by their displacement irregular groups, 
and developing, during the process of multiplication, in the 
form of colonies or cellular masses; or, lastly, becoming 
agglutinated together through the medium of an intercellular 
mucous substance in the shape of masses of zoogloca, com¬ 
posed probably of stable cells.” 
With respect to the signification of these corpuscles, Cohn, 
following the example of Keber and Chauveau, considers 
them as being essentially the contagious element, and bases 
his opinion on the following facts: these corpuscles are 
identical, as the author has been able to assure himself, with 
those found by Weigert in the skin of several persons who 
had died from smallpox. According to him, the globular 
bacteria always act as ferments, and develop in urine, al¬ 
bumen, the spleen, &c., products of decomposition. He 
admits, by analogy, that the microspheres of variolic lymph 
also play the part of a ferment, and give rise in this lymph 
to a product of decomposition capable of setting up a morbid 
specific process. According to this hypothesis, the micro¬ 
spheres are rather the generators than the vehicles of the 
contagium.— Virchow’s Archives, Annales Vet. de Bruxelles. 
IMPORTANCE OE THERMOMETRY IN CLINICAL 
INVESTIGATIONS. 
According to M. Dele, this subject has been commented 
upon by Signor Lorenzo Brusasco, professor of pathology 
and clinic, in his inaugural discourse at the Veterinary School 
of Turin in 1872-73. 
The extent of the discourse precludes a complete trans¬ 
lation, but certain important sections are offered for con¬ 
sideration. The value of this means of research is alluded to 
as follows : 
“ Methodical and exact thermometrical exploration by the 
ascending and descending parabola of the temperature, fur¬ 
nishes most precious and important elements in the diagnosis, 
prognosis, and therapeutics of disease; it makes known the 
intensity and the gravity, the periods and stages of an in¬ 
flammatory malady by indicating the different points of 
transition, and the remissions and exacerbations;—in a word, 
all the forms, the irregularity of its course, depending upon 
accidental circumstances, the action of therapeutic agents or 
unforeseen complications, allows us to make known the 
duration and to predict a fatal or favorable termination, to 
know when and for how long a period it is necessary to have 
recourse to antiphlogistic measures, to control their effects, 
