PATHOLOGY. 
deceafed, the prefent is one of the few opportunities 
we have of noticing living chara&ers. We (hall there¬ 
fore prefent our readers with an account of the vifit of 
an Englilh gentleman to profeffor Prochalka and his mu- 
feu m. 
“ There is a primitive fimplicity, a condefcenfion, and 
a gentlenefs, in this old man, fo celebrated at the fame 
time for his genius and his learning, which endear him 
to every one. We had no fooner announced to profefl'or 
Prochafka the objefl: of our vifit, than he put into our 
hands a foot, which, at firft fight, had nothing of an un¬ 
common appearance, except that its furface was of a deep 
vermilion colour. One might have fuppofed that it had 
been roughly coloured, and varniftied with a brufli. He 
then gave us a fmall microfcope, and defired us to exa¬ 
mine the foot in a good light. We had no fooner ap¬ 
proached to the window, and looked at the foot through 
the microfcope, than we difcovered that its cutaneous 
velfels were beyond conception minutely inje&ed. The 
vermilion colour of the preparation arofe from the injec¬ 
tion filling, on every point of the furface of the cutis, 
one might almoft fay a myriad of arteries. In a fecond 
preparation we faw the periofteum of the_femur almolt 
equally minutely injedted. This preparation feemed to 
prove the non-vafcularity of cartilage; for, as foon as 
the injedted veffels of the periofteum reached the border 
of the articulating furface of the knee, they were moft 
diftindtly feen to return upon themfelves, and not one 
could be difcovered, even with the aid of the microfcope, 
to be prolonged into the cartilage, which had retained its 
white, or rather affumed from deficcation ayellowifh, co¬ 
lour. Profefl'or Prochafka has never been able to inject any 
of the cartilages. He is therefore inclined to believe that 
the patella which Ruyfch has defcribed, the internal car¬ 
tilaginous furface of which exhibited a confiderable num¬ 
ber of veflels* rauft have been difeafed. Profefl'or Pro- 
chafiea next (flowed us a fmall box of fimilar Lieber- 
kuehnian preparations, which had coft him, he faid, 
nearly ten years. Thefe confided of injedted and pre¬ 
pared membranes, and of thin fedfions of other organs, 
fixed upon plates of glafs in the fame way that other mi- 
crofcopical objedts ufually are. When viewed through 
the microfcope, and el’pecially thofe of the kidney, thefe 
preparations difplayed a minutenefs, a beauty, and a va¬ 
riety, which even exceeded.our expedfations. Indeed we 
can conceive nothing in this kind of preparations more 
beautiful than on-2 of thofe of which we now fpeak, in 
which we faw the capillaries of the cortical part of the 
kidney, forming on each fide of their trunks thofe little 
globules, which both Malpighi and Mafcagni fuppofed 
to be hollow glands, in which the urine was depofited im¬ 
mediately after being fecreted. 
“We accompanied profeffor Prochalka from his houfe 
to his mufeum. Here we found whole heads and extre¬ 
mities injedfed microfcopically. He told us that he had 
injedled even whole fubjedfs in that way. He (flowed us 
a feries of preparations in which the periofteum, the pe¬ 
ritonaeum, the mucous membrane of the nofe, and that 
of the inteftines, could be compared. It is from the red- 
nefs which a part affumes, when well injedfed, that Pro- 
cha(ka eftimates its vafcularity. Some parts, fuch as the 
nails, hair, epidermis, cartilages, and arachnoid mem¬ 
brane, never admit injedtion. Other parts, which exhibit 
fcarcely any veffels immediately after injedtion, become 
extremely red on being dried ; difplaying, when viewed 
through the microfcope, a tiftue of innumerable arteries. 
Such is the cafe with the internal furface of the cutis, 
with the nerves, and with the falivary glands.” 
The Mufeum of profeffor Prochalka contains a number 
of interefting preparations befides the microfcopical ones. 
Ail account of fome of the moft curious of thefe has been 
printed in the Quarterly Journal of Foreign Medicine, 
N° I. 
The Cabinet of Inteftinal Worms is a part of the Im¬ 
perial Mufeum of Natural Hiftory, under the particular 
63 
diredlion of Dr. Bremfer, and forms of itfelf an objedt of 
confiderable intereft, from the great number of fpecimens 
which it contains, and from the pains which have been 
taken to arrange the whole, and even to difplay the in¬ 
dividual fpecimens. Dr. Bremfer pradtifes as a phyfician 
in Vienna ; he is at the fame time a zealous cultivator of 
natural hiftory, and is perfedtly enthufiaftic in this par¬ 
ticular purfuit, to which his office as confervator of this 
cabinet diredls his attention. He has difledled no fewer 
than fifty thoufand animals, with the foie view' of detedl- 
ing the various fpecies of worms which fojourn in their 
inteftines and in other parts of their bodies. All the 
animals which die in the Menagerie at Schoenbrunn are 
delivered to Dr. Bremfer for this purpofe; and no ex- 
penfe is fpared to procure dead animals of rarity, inclu¬ 
ding foreign birds and fifties. 
The method taken by Dr. Bremfer to detedi the fmalleft 
worms is extremely precife, and often aftoniftiingly fuc- 
cefsful. He flits up the inteftines, and carefully colledfs 
their contents, which he fets afide for examination. 
Having minutely gone over the internal furface of the 
inteftines which he had emptied, he proceeds to examine 
the contents in fmall quantities mixed with water, and 
poured into a flat glafs faucer, the bottom of which is 
japanned black, furveying each quantity in fucceffion 
through a microfcope. The fame kind of faucers he alfo 
employs to difplay the fmaller worms, which, being moftly 
white, are rendered extremely evident by the black 
ground on which they are thus placed. 
The preparations are arranged with much order and 
neatnefs. We fee each fpecies of worpi taken from a 
complete feries of animals, beginning with man, and 
paffing through the different genera of quadrupeds, birds, 
and fillies. Dr. Bremfer has made drawings of moft of 
the fpecies, both of the natural (ize and magnified ; 
they are executed with great beauty upon a black ground: 
fome of them have been already engraved, and will ap¬ 
pear in a work upon inteftinal worms, which Dr. Bremler 
is preparing for publication. 
In the luburb of Vienna called the Aider Vorftadt, 
are fituated the General Hofpital, the Jofephine Academy, 
and the great Military Hofpital. Hence, in thisfuburb 
are lodged almoft all the foreigners, as well as many of 
the lfudents from the different parts of the Auftrian 
dominions, who come to Vienna in purfuit of medical 
ftudy. 
The Allgemeine Krankenhaus, or General Hofpital, 
is one of the nobleft inftitutions of the patriot-emperor 
Jofeph II. It is one of the molt extensive buildings in 
Vienna, and confiderably the largeft hofpital which we 
have feen. Lunatic and Foundling Hoipitals are both 
fituated near it; and are, in certain economical rcfpefts, 
connefted with it. The greater part of the hofpital is 
of two ftories in height. It is arranged in feven large 
quadrangular courts, the firft of which upon entering, 
and the largeft, is laid out with grals-plots and (haded 
walks; and contains, in a building feparated from the 
reft of the hofpital, the houfe of the director, the medi¬ 
cal clinic, a lefture-room, and the mufeum of pathologi¬ 
cal anatomy. The phyficians, furgeons, and affiftants, 
have apartments in different parts of the hofpital. Like 
moft of the hofpitals in Germany, it is under the inflec¬ 
tion of a medical director, who muft refide within the 
walls of the hofpital. This office was filled by profefl'or 
Von Hildenbrand, lately deceafed ; and is looked upon as 
one of great truft and high refpe&ability. 
The number of ftck rooms is in ; of which 61 are for 
male, and 50 for female, patients. Thefe rooms are each 
twenty-fix feet long, and feventeen broad ; they are lofty 
and clean. The windows are large; but are all raifed 
eight feet from the floor. The advantages of being able, 
by this phn, to place beds near to the windows, and of 
avoiding the ftream of air which blows upon the beds 
when the windows of an hofpital are low, are perhaps 
over-balanced by the difadvantage of being unable rea- 
3 diiy 
