LEUCOCYTHRMIA. 
163 
LEUCOCYTHEMIA, 
(A paper read before the New York State Veterinary Society.) 
By Prof. J. L. Robertson, M.D., V.S. 
Prof. Jas. Hughes Bennett, of the University of Edinburgh, 
examined the body of a man who died in the .Royal Infirmary la¬ 
boring under hypertrophy of the spleen and liver, and whose 
blood was covered with corpuscles, which exactly resembled those 
of pus. The morbid condition discovered was separated from 
pyaemia, and shown to be unconnected with any form of inflam¬ 
mation. 
An account of the case, together with one of similar character 
occurring in the practice of Dr. Jno. Reid, was published in the 
Edinburgh Journal for October, 1845. 
Six weeks after these cases had been made public, Virchow 
gave the history of another in Mr. Froriep’s “ Notizen.” 
The records of medicine show the previous occurrence of like 
cases, although an unusual number of colorless corpuscles had not 
been physically proved to exist; and to Bennett and Virchow be¬ 
long the renown of first discovering, in a somewhat positive man¬ 
ner, the nature of the disease we are about to consider ; for even 
to their descriptions must be added new facts in relation to its 
reality. 
The malady in question has received two descriptions. In 
English and French nomenclature it is known as leucocythemia 
(from luekos, white; kutos, a cell, and hsemia, blood); whilst 
in Germany the term leukhemia, from leukos, white, and heemia, 
blood, has been retained as originally proposed by Virchow. Ben- 
net considers this name faulty, as the blood is not white, but pre¬ 
sents its usual red tinge when drawn from its vessels. 
It has been, as a disease, fully admitted in the text books of 
human medicine, and we who are interested in the veterinary 
science are anxious to know if it exists in our domestic animals. 
English literature, as far as my knowledge extends, is silent on 
the subject, although cases of it may have been described in some 
of the journals and been overlooked by me. 
