in the latter, the carbuncular affection is primary and at first local; and in it we do not observe either the numerous farcy abscesses nor the characteristic ulcerations of the nostrils. In short, the acute form of farcy glanders, when it occurs in the human subject, is perhaps of all eruptive fevers that of which the diagnosis is the most easy: the truth of this assertion will appear from the circumstance of the disease having been at once recognised, and correctly too in every instance, in fifteen cases which have presented themselves within a short time in the hospitals at Paris.

In man the subcutaneous abscesses and a pustular and gangrenous eruption on the skin are often the earliest positive signs of glanderous infection, and these are well characterised before any ulcerations in, or discharge from, the nostrils can be detected. In the horse, on the contrary, the certainty of the diagnosis rests chiefly on the existence of a discharge from the nostrils, and of a pustular and gangrenous eruption in the nasal passages-the eruption being easily discovered in the septum by slightly opening the nostrils.

The diagnosis of chronic glanders is much more easy in the horse than in man. In fact, every case of chronic nasal discharge, attended with swelling of the glands in the horse-unless, indeed, these symptoms have been induced by the accidental introduction of a foreign substance into the nostrils, or by some cancerous affection of these parts—is at once considered to be of a glanderous nature. In such circumstances the veterinarian has not, like the physician, to ascertain if the nasal ulcerations are or are not of a syphilitic or a scrofulous origin.

Lastly, as to the treatment of glanders, whether in the human subject or in the horse, we are sorry to confess that as yet scarcely any progress has been made to the discovery of a cure. In an immense majority of cases, whether the disease be of the acute or of the chronic form, it proves fatal to the horse; and in man it has been uniformly fatal.

The leading and chief object must be to prevent, if possible, the development of the disease in the horse, by removing all the causes which may give rise to it, or which favor its propagation. Above all, let any doubts as to the contagiousness of the disease be for ever at an end; for, surely, no one who has once witnessed the ravages committed by the disease in stables, into which one glandered horse has been admitted, can question it for a moment. Neglect in this respect has been the chief cause of the frightful mortality among the horses of the army in various barracks throughout the kingdom. We trust that henceforth stricter and better precautions will be taken, not only in our military and public, but likewise in all private stables, to arrest the destructive progress of this pestilence.-Gazette Medicale.

On the preceding memoir M. Magendie took occasion, at a subsequent meeting of the Academy of Sciences, to comment in the following strain.

"I will tell my honourable confrere that, when he asserts that the chronic glanders is of the same nature as the acute malady, he is quite in error, and that he is equally mistaken in affirming that the former disease is contagious, or that the glanders of the horse is communicable to man by the way of contagion.

With respect to the first of these points, the difference between the acute and chronic forms of glanders-the chief distinguishing marks are these: the acute disease usually runs its course rapidly, and from its very commencement compromises the life of the animal, rendering it quite incapable of any exercise; whereas in the chronic disease the horse is in most instances fit for work, and not only takes its food well, but will propagate its race, as if it were in good health, for a series of months and even of years. Indeed, there are so few grounds to confound the two diseases, that they may actually co-exist in the

same animal, and the veterinarian can distinguish what appertains to the one and what appertains to the other.

With respect to the contagiousness of the chronic disease, I may state that the commission, recently named by the Minister of War to examine minutely into the history of glanders generally, made numerous experiments to determine whether healthy horses ever become infected by being kept in the same stables with such as were diseased. Now although this proximity was sometimes continued for upwards of a twelvemonth, in no instance had we the slightest reason to suspect the communication of the chronic disease from one animal to another."

M. Magendie is equally sceptical as to the transmissibility of equine glanders to the human subject.

"

For my part, I, who have studied the disease in the horse on a wide scale, and have seen persons affected with the malady which my confreres denominate glanders, must confess that I have never discovered the supposed resemblance, and should have been most happy if it could have been pointed out to me."

It would seem, nevertheless, that M. Magendie has been puzzled what to make of the disease, which, he cannot deny, is apt to seize persons who are brought much in contact with glandered horses.

"If," says he, "I may judge by my own observations of this disease, which I regard as new, it is probably of a carbuncular nature, and is dependent upon a morbid state of the blood."

Several of the Academecians replied to M. Magendie, who seems to stand very much alone in his negation of most of the positions laid down in the memoir of MM. Rayer and Breschet.

The following facts were mentioned by one gentleman on the authority of M. Leblanc, one of the most distinguished veterinary surgeons in Paris.

1. Pus obtained from the pustules on a man affected with glanders, and also the nasal mucus of the same patient were inoculated upon an ass: the animal speedily exhibited all the symptoms of genuine glanders and died. The correctness of this fact was ascertained by several eminent veterinarians.

2. A quantity of the same pus and mucus was inserted in a horse; in the course of a few days glanderous and farcy lesions presented themselves, and the animal was killed at the end of a month. On dissection, all the morbid appearances usually observed were found.

In conclusion, we may state that a commission, consisting of MM. Pariset, Juge, Emery, Huzard, and Guarard, recently sent to the head Prefect of Police their report, wherein, among other regulations, we find the following.

1. "It is prohibited to any one to sleep, or to cause another to sleep, in a stable where there are any horses suspected to be glandered."

4.་ Every person who may have in his possession a horse, mule, or ass affected, or suspected to be affected, with the glanders or the farcy, shall be bound to make immediate declaration of the same, in rural districts before the mayor, and at Paris before a commissioner of police."

15. All stables or buildings where horses or other animals affected, or sus

* We have subsequently discovered that M. Larrey is not satisfied as to the transmission of the glanders from the horse to the human subject. He alluded to his experience during the protracted continental war, carried on by France for a quarter of a century, during the whole course of which he had never heard of any horse-soldier having ever caught the disease. Without, however, denying the possibility of inoculation, he is of opinion that further enquiries are necessary before we can admit its perfect truth.

pected to be affected, with the glanders or the farcy shall be well ventilated and purified by the orders of the mayor or commissioner of police; and they shall not again be occupied until it has been ascertained by an expert veterinary surgeon that the causes of infection no longer exist.-Gazette Medicale.

ON THE STRUCTURE AND CONNECTIONS OF THE PLACENta.

As the following description and observations are the result of most carefully conducted anatomical investigations, they will be read with interest.

M. Bonamy says, "a woman died in between the seventh and the eighth months of pregnancy. An injection of size coloured with red lead was thrown with great care into the venous system of the uterus from the common iliac vein and one of the ovarian veins. A second injection, composed of the essence of turpentine and coloured with indigo, was then thrown into the uterine arteries from the extremity of the aorta, ligatures having previously been placed upon all the vessels capable of permitting the injection to pass to the lower limbs. The uterus was carefully removed from the body and conveyed to the lecture-room of M. Cruveilhier. The uterus was then laid open at some distance from the attachments of the placenta, and the fœtus removed. We immediately observed that the umbilical vessels on the placenta and along the entire extent of the cord were distended with a black fluid, which we imagined was the dark turpentine injection thrown into the uterine arteries. But we soon discovered our error; for on dividing the cord nothing but blood escaped.

Injections, consisting of linseed oil coloured with white lead and with yellow ochre, were thrown into the umbilical vein and then into one of the umbilical arteries.

Already we perceived on the foetal surface of the placenta the red fluid which had been injected into the uterine veins; and the question naturally suggested itself By what channels had it reached so far? To solve this, it was necessary to examine with great care the nature of the connexions of the placenta with the uterus.

We carefully detached a small portion of it by cutting with the greatest precaution first the decidua, and then the ligamentous bridles which attached it to the inner surface of the uterus: we could thus examine the utero-placentary connecting tissue and the vessels which it might contain.

This tissue is of an albuminous or fibrinous nature, and is formed of numerous lamellæ which cross and intersect in all directions, and adhere to each other only by a few points of their surface.

If air is blown in at the places where they are slightly apart (où elles ne sont que contiguës) we observe that cells of various forms and sizes quickly make their appearance. These cells having been seen by several anatomists developed by the injection which had been thrown into the uterine veins, it has been a general belief that they are actually veins which communicate freely with the uterine system of veins.

"

An author to whose authority we have always confidence in appealing, M. Velpeau, has however dissented from this doctrine; and in eight cases in which I examined the placenta in situ (he says), I have not been able to discover any sinuses or orifices which bore any resemblance to what have been described by writers under these names."

M. Jaquemier, in his recent work on the uterus published last year, has described with the greatest minuteness these cells under the title of veins, and has gone so far as to distinguish three principal varieties of them. One set, he says, is extremely short, (their trajet not exceeding one or two lines), and is not very oblique in their direction; whereas, another set is very obliquely or slantingly

arranged, and is most frequently situated in the direction of the inter-lobular scissures; the last set has the most remarkable distribution, being arranged in the form of a crown or circle around the placenta.

All these so-called veins communicate, according to M. Jaquemier, with the uterine veins by large orifices on the internal surface of the uterus where the placenta is attached. We must confess that we have not been able to discover these large orifices of communication described by this author; and in our experiment the cells did not contain a particle of the injection which had been thrown into the uterine veins. We first blew air into them, then we filled them with water; but neither the one nor the other of these fluids seemed to penetrate. (To render these experiments more decisive, we had previously freely exposed the uterine veins by dissecting off a flap from the outer surface of the uterus.) These alleged orifices in truth do not exist; we regard them as mere solutions of continuity produced most frequently by the injection having been thrown in with too much force. The materials commonly employed have been suet or wax, neither of which, it is well known by anatomists, is at all suited for the injection of the veins: in consequence of the rapid cooling and solidification of these substances, it is necessary to throw the injection in hurriedly and with considerable force. Hence rupture of some of the veins almost inevitably takes place; this is especially apt to happen with the injection of the uterine veins, during the state of pregnancy, in consequence of their parietes having become much distended and consequently weakened. When therefore we examine the attachment of the placenta to the gravid uterus, after such an injection has been used, we almost inevitably find some of the injected matter, like small lumps, in cavities the orifices of which, although communicating with the veins, are in truth nothing but ruptures.

The utero-placentary tissue adheres most intimately not only to the walls of the uterus, but also to the large veins which are distributed on its internal surface. In detaching the placenta, the rupture of these adhesions is sufficient in itself to cause the rupture of the parietes of the veins; but in truth there is more than these adhesions between the uterine veins and the utero-placentary tissue, for there is a " veritable continuité" established by minute-blood-vessels which may be observed imbedded in the substance of the adhering lamellæ. These minute vessels are the genuine utero-placentary veins. Now when the adhering lamellæ are lacerated in detaching the placenta from the uterus, these vessels are necessarily torn across at their embouchure into the large veins, the rupture of which also is generally occasioned at the same time.

In the first portion of placenta which I detached, I did not perceive the orifices of communication, in consequence no doubt of the adhering utero-placentary tissue having been cleanly divided with a sharp scalpel, and not torn across. But the same precaution being not used in detaching the next portion-which was separated with the fingers-the ruptures of the uterine veins were at once made obvious by the escape of the injected fluid.

Now if it can be shewn that the cells in the utero-placentary tissue do not communicate with the veins, it follows that the appellation of utero-placentary veins, which has been given them by many writers, is quite misapplied, and gives rise to a most erroneous opinion as to their real nature. The parietes of these cells are very unresisting, and yet they must contain a fluid in circulation. It is true that the blood is stagnant in them as in a lake, to use the expression of Haller; but when the contractions of the uterus come on during labour, this blood will be set in motion and will re-act against their parietes, which would readily give way, and then a hæmorrhage more or less copious would necessarily follow, if it were not that the uterus was distended with its contents, and thus a uniform pressure is kept up at every point of its internal surface.

We shall now make a few remarks on the small vessels which we have described to be imbedded in the lamellæ of the utero-placentary tissue, and which

transmit the venous blood of the uterus into the placenta-in other words, the genuine utero-placentary vessels. The veins are of about the same size as the arteries, and sometimes rather larger; some that I measured had a diameter of two or three lines. The veins were easily distinguishable from the arteries, by the colour and nature of the injection within them, and which consisted of what had been thrown into the uterine veins: they were rectilinear; and their anastomoses, which were very frequent, formed extensive plexuses on the parietes of the cells. These plexuses penetrated at every point into the uterine surface of the placenta; their terminations in the large uterine veins were quite manifest. On the other hand, the arteries were arranged spirally, and their anastomoses were comparatively few; they were less numerous at the circumference than at the centre of the placenta, the entire thickness of which was penetrated with them. These arteries were distinctly observed to be continuous with the arteries of the uterus.

Besides these blood-vessels, some writers have described lymphatic vessels in the placenta. Lanth, in his memoir on the connections of the placenta, has admitted the existence of these vessels in the following passage :-" Since there is no direct communication between the blood-vessels of the uterus and those of the placenta, and since the cells where, it is has been alleged, the blood might be effused actually do not exist, the only communication therefore which we can admit between the mother and the fœtus is that by lymphatic vessels, of which some terminate in the vessels of the placenta and others in those of the deciduous membrane. These vessels (the lymphatic), by their termination in the sanguineous vascular system of one of these organs, appear to be grafted at their origin on those of the other, in such a manner that the vessels, which spring or originate from the vessels of the uterus, and which terminate in the vessels of the placenta, draw from the maternal blood certain materials to be conveyed into the circulation of the fœtus :-on the other hand, the lymphatic radicles, which are grafted on the blood-vessels of the placenta, terminate in the vessels of the uterus, for the purpose of withdrawing from the foetal blood such matters as are no longer useful to it, and excreting them into the venous system of the mother."

M. Breschet has very justly remarked that the above explanation is all very ingenious, but that it is quite unsupported by any anatomical facts.* . The vascular connexions of the placenta with the uterus in the human subject are altogether analogous with those observed in the lower animals. We find in the former the veins and the arteries which we have had occasion to describe(M. Bonamy had in the previous part of his memoir described the anatomy of the placenta in the carnivorous, ruminant, and pachydermatous animals)—under the name of the maternal vessels of the placenta. We now proceed to describe those which belong to the fœtus, under the name of the umbilical vessels.

The umbilical arteries and veins, on reaching the fœtal surface of the placenta, divide into numerous large branches, which are situated under the amnios and chorion. The arterial branches communicate freely with each other in the substance of the same cotyledon. If we throw even a coarse injection into one of the arteries, it returns immediately by another: if we continue to push more in, the injection is found to pass from the arteries into the veins. But if we inject from the veins, the injection does not pass, except with much difficulty, into the arteries. This impediment to the transmission from the veins into the arteries cannot well be attributed to the presence of valves in the former; for they have not been discovered by some of the best anatomists of the present day. If a fine injection be thrown into the veins, the uterine surface of the placenta will

It is right to state that M. Lanth himself, in the last Edition of his Manual of Anatomy, has recanted his former opinion, and expressly admitted that no intermediate lymphatic vessels, such as he had described, can be shewn.