happy slight preponderance of conservative chemism that we can use such preparations as the mistura glycyrrhizæ composita.

Solution of potassium nitrite, with gallic acid, soon turns red and evolves nitric oxide and other gases; with tannic acid, a similar change occurs as soon as the mixture is acidulated with acetic acid, the color being brownish red and changed to dull green by alkalies.

A few years ago, there was repeated discussion as to whether carbolic acid is or is not compatible with spirit of nitrous ether. The shield had two sides. If acid to litmus paper, the spirit will sooner or later give the yellow-red color of picric acid, bitter and poisonous, its formation being suggested by the result of adding a drop of concentrated nitric acid to a drop of carbolic acid.

There has been some doubt as to whether certain of the grades. of spirit of nitrous ether in market had enough of the ethyl nitrite to be very dangerous. So far as our observation has extended, there is not much of the spirit in market, that falls much below the 4 to 5 per cent. required. Last year, Mr. Griggs (:) analysed seven samples, selected from various manufacturers, as found in the retail trade, and obtained the following numbers of per cent. of ethyl nitrite: 3.7, 4.2, 4.0, 3.5, 4.4, 3.8, 4.1. A fresh prepared U. S. P. sample gave 5.4.

MISCROSCOPIC EXAMINATION OF CONDIMENTS AND MEDICINES.

The following microscopic determinations are selected from those made by Prof. Harrington's class, in the University of Michigan, the present college year, each result being the concurrent report of a number of workers. The articles were obtained from various dealers, representing different grinders : Ground Mustard, No. 1-pure.

(1) Contributions from the School of Pharmacy of the University of Michigan.— Am. Jour. Phar,, 1875, p. 463

66

66

66

5--adulterated with wheat starch and a very little

turmeric.

66 6-adulterated with wheat starch and corn starch.

66 7-adulterated with wheat starch and turmeric.

66

8-adulterated with corn meal.

66 9-contains wheat starch and turmeric. Ground Capsicum-contains wheat starch and turmeric. Ground Allspice-adulterated with coffee and starch. Black Pepper, ground, No. 1-contains wheat starch. 66 2-pure.

66

66

Ground Cinnamon (true)-contains cassia.

Ground Cloves-pure.

RETENTION OF COPPER IN THE LIVER: four and a half grains of the metal remaining three months after administration ceased. (Comptes Rendus, lxxx No. 8, Amer. Chem., vi, 347.) At La Salpetriere, Paris, an epileptic patient took, during four months, 43 grammes (664 grains) of copper ammonio sulphate. The daily dose of this compound was advanced from 10 to 15 centigrammes (11⁄2 to 23 grains). The medicine was then discontinued, none of the epileptic cases receiving any benefit from its use. Three months after, this patient died (having tuberculous disease). After autopsy, the analysis of the liver. showed that the entire organ contained copper equivalent to 0.295 grammes (4.55 grains) of the metal or 1.166 grammes (18 grains) of the sulphate.

Selections and Translations.

DIAPEDESIS OF LECOCYTES OF MAN.-ITS ANATOMOPATHOLOGICAL DEMONSTRATION. By LEON COLIN, Prof. at Val-de-Grace. Translated by W. J. HERDMAN, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy, University of Michigan.

Continued from May Number.

II. In a quite recent work, by M. Kelsch, upon the pathological anatomy of malarial fevers, the following passages appear: "My observations show that the pigment appears in the blood

at the very commencement of the attack and that it is rapidly taken up by the leucocytes in the same manner as the artificial pigment, and from this time on, the melanotic leucocytes deport themselves with regard to their dissemination throughout the organs, exactly as the globules impregnated with cinnabar; they accumulate in the capillaries of organs where the circulation is retarded; in the liver, which interposes a net-work of capillaries to the progress of the blood, in the marrow of the long bones and in the spleen where the capillaries open into very large veins, a condition favorable for retarding the current of blood. The most minute melanotic cells which escape from the splenic and hepatic filters are stranded in the capillary meshes of the lungs, brain, kidney, &c. In the spleen and the marrow, the accumulated pigment leaves the capillaries little by little by means of the lacunæ which afford circulatory passages and incorporate themselves in the proper tissues of these organs. It is by this pro

cedure that the blood purges itself of the melanotic elements, exactly as it gets rid of the granules of cinnabar."

III. Finally Prof. Rouget, in his equally recent work upon the migration of the white corpuscles considers certain facts with reference to malarial pigmentation. According to time the congestions of the spleen, as a result of malarial poisoning, frequently, though not always depend upon a state of the vessels resembling that which is observed in the natatory membrane of batrachians after mechanical irritation i. e. contraction of certain vessels, stasis of the blood in others, diapedesis and capillary hemorrhages, a meeting of the extravasated red and white corpuscles, the latter becoming pigmented by absorbing the former, then by means of their amoeboid properties re-entering the circulation in the condition of pigmentary corpuscles and constituting melanæmia.

Perhaps the author was induced to enunciate this opinion by reason of his absolute conviction as to the genesis of the melanotic pigment which, according to his views, was nothing but the result of transformation of red blood corpuscles. With this ex

ception, we fully accept the remainder and we have for a long time entertained the opinion that the spleen is above all other organs the centre for the elaboration of melanotic pigment, and that this pigment accumulates here as a result of the destruction of red blood corpuscles which takes place in malarial poisoning. It seems to us that this learned physiologist might be much stronger in his affirmation when in making an allusion to the ultimate destiny of these pigmentary globules, he adds:

"Future investigation may, perhaps, permit us to determine whether these pigmentary granules which have accidentally penetrated into the circulatory system are not able to get out of it, as they do in the state of white corpuscles, and permanently locate in certain tissues.

So the professor of Mountpelier admits the entrance through the walls of the vessels of leucocytes charged with pigment, but he considers it still a question whether they go out through these same walls. It seems to us that the investigation in pathological anatomy affords better proof of the escape of melanotic leucocytes from the general circulation than of their entry, but at any rate, to admit the second of these facts as a consequence of the amoeboid movements of the white corpuscles necessarily implies the admission of the first as M. Rouget among others appears to do.

CONCLUSIONS.

Malarial poisoning occasions in man a state similar to that which experimenters have sought to produce, who have injected coloring materials into the blood in order to make appreciable the extravasation of leucocytes by diapedesis. In this affection, the pigment brands the leucocytes, so to speak, and the brand remains after their passage. But if the pigmentary coloration of leucocytes renders their migration appreciable, it seems natural to admit that in other than morbid states, this migration takes place without being perceived, physiologically, in fact. In malarial poisoning, the walls of the vessels do not present any special alteration; if we prove that these walls are traversed by leucocytes only in this affection is it that these globules are colored.

They pass through the obstruction quite as well whether the condition is normal or pathological, except they leave no trace. If their progress is noticed in melanemie it is because here they have left their trace when the vermillion of the experiments is replaced by pigment. In a word, the diapedesis of leucocytes is in constant progress in man, whether in health or disease, but it is only in melanemie that it is easily observed. This morbid condition, it may be observed proves much more than those experiments in which by an artificial inflammation of the walls of the vessels local migrations of leucocytes are obtained, migration sufficiently abundant to constitute prevalent perivascular collections. In melanemie, it is not a local and morbid extravasation that takes place as in these experiments. The phenomena are much more general and much more physiological since the proofs of it are discovered, not only around the capillaries but in and around the walls of the small arteries and veins and without previous inflammation of these structures.

The communication of the solid elements of the blood with the tissues is then not only much more intimate, but much more general than is usually admitted. It is probable that the migration would be much more active as the febrile heat increased the vascular tension. The impulsion of the blood current would contribute to this increased activity as well as the amoeboid movements of the leucocytes and these movements are much more energetic as the temperature of the liquid which bathes them is raised.

This explains to us how it is that in countries where malaria is prevalent, it is common to see among those attacked by the fever the rapid appearance of the yellow tint which is one of the first indications of the telluric poisoning and of the general pigmentation of the tissues.

We have seen the sick present this tint after two or three attacks of the fever, only sometimes after a single one; to the red color of the integuments coinciding with the period of febrile reaction, succeeds in several hours, at the moment of apyrexy