THE HONOURS TO GUIDO BACCELLI.

THE HONOURS TO GUIDO BACCELLI.

1128 densely infiltrated with lymphoid tissue. At 32 weeks the vermiform appendix of man is to all appearances an actively functional gland. There ar...

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1128

densely infiltrated with lymphoid tissue. At 32 weeks the vermiform appendix of man is to all appearances an actively functional gland. There are, then, to be met with in the plane of a transverse section from ten to 12 well-marked and large lymph follicles and about 160 tubular glands. The conclusion to be drawn in regard to the first point is, then, that whilst there is no lymphoid tissue in the cagcal apex of the lower animals or in the appendix of man at the time of birth the portion of gut under consideration has become within a period of from one to six weeks an actively functional lymph gland. In regard to the second point the writers entertain no doubt that the lymphoid tissue does tend to disappear from the human appendix, for the number of lymph follicles visible in transverse sections of appendices will be found to become less numerous with advancing age, so that whilst six or seven follicles may be found in a transverse section of an appendix up to the age of 40 years, at the age of 60 years and above there are only traces or a total absence of them. The lymphoid tissue, however, never totally disappears. Lastly, they consider that obliteration of the On these vermiform appendix is a pathological process. various grounds the vermiform appendix of man may be regarded as by no means a vestigial remnant or an organ in a state of retrogression but as an actively functional lymph gland. The writers consider that the passage of inert foreign bodies into the appendix is extremely rare, though the entrance of living organisms such as the trichocephalus is easily conceivable and has been several times demonstrated in cases where appendicitis was present.

and how it may be delineated. Professor Barrett promises that in a future communication he will describe an instrument which he has devised and which he has termed the entoptoscope by which the position and the size of floating muses can be determined. THE

HONOURS TO GUIDO BACCELLI.

" plebiscito universale di ammirazione " of which on Sunday, April 8tb, the head of the Roman Medical School was the object must have more than realised the intentions of its promoters. From Royalty itself to the leading representatives of every interest, professional and lay, there was but one sentiment that animated the distinguished auditory that thronged the Capitol-one of respect, esteem, and kindly I brotherhood towards the physician, the man of letters, THE

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the citizen, and the statesman whom it had met to honour. Not for the first time has THE LANCET1 borne testimony to what Italy and the outside world owe to the clinician and pathologist who has worthily held up the torch transmitted from Baglivi to Morgagni and from Morgagni to the modern schools. We have only to-day to congratulate the " youngest of the Great Powers " on her still possessing a son so able, so accomplished, so public-spirited, so inspiring, whether in the clinical lecture room or in the legislative chamberpossessing him, moreover, in the maturity and the unimpaired vigour of his many-sided energy. The crowning work of his life-the foundation of the Policlinico "-was the subject of special eulogy on the occasion of April 8th and we may now repeat what we expressed when that great institution was planned-to wit, our sense of the truly ENTOPTICS. catholic spirit in which its founder drew upon the experience IN a communication made to the Royal Dablin Society in of the scientific world for its equipment, among the evidences March of the present year Professor W. F. Barrett calls of which was his selection of the English Lister as the attention to the phenomena of entoptic vision or the self counterpart of the Italian Morgagni, to typify, by the examination of objects within the eye. It is remarkable sculptor’s art, the genius of surgery side by side with that that the subject of entoptics appears to have dropped out of of medicine. " Dum Tibris Etruscum in mare defluat the consideration of most of the writers of recent ophthalmoFlavente lapsu, stet Polyclinicum and is manuals The of this treatises. reason Fulgens, tributurum salutem logical probably Italiae dominaeque Romae." to be found in the circumstance that it belongs properly to physiological optics and is therefore discarded by authors May it continue to stand not only for the humane science it who require all the space at their command for the con- cultivates and reduces to practice but as testimony to the " fratellanza," the brotherhood, that knows no distinctions sideration of the defects, disorders, and diseases of the eye ; of race or creed, responsive only to the watchword which motes in the the by eye—muscle yet appearances presented "all men’s good, each man’s rule." volitantes-are so annoying that inquiries as to their In nature and relief are constantly made by patients. many instances a favourable prognosis may be given ANGINAL ATTACKS IN CONGENITAL HEART with assurance that they will become fainter or less DISEASE. numerous and will ultimately disappear, either by IT is frequently observed that children with congenital absorption or by rising out of the line of vision ; for their heart disease suffer from convulsions of a greater or less apparent descent is attributable to their specific gravity degree of severity but the occurrence of anginal attacks being lower than the surrounding fluid. They hence ascend analogous to those of adults is extremely rare. Dr. Norbert and their shadow on the retina being inverted they appear Swoboda showed a case of this kind before the pediatric by the law of projection to fall. Nevertheless, they may in section of the Gesellschaft fiir innere Medicin und Kindergeneral be regarded as indicative of some degree of impaired heilkunde in Vienna on March 1st, which is recorded in nutrition of the health or of the eye and should not be dis- the Wiener Medioinische Wooltensehrift. The patient was an regarded by the physician as altogether unimportant. infant, aged 18 months, of weakly, ill-developed appearance. Entoptic phenomena are most easily demonstrated and There were marked cyanosis and persistent dyspnoea, the examined by looking at a clear sky or a well illuminated fingers were clubbed, and the extremities were cold and street through a pinhole aperture in a piece of cardboard or blue. There was marked pulsation in the praecordial region thin metal held close to the eye. Professor Barrett points but no thrill. On auscultation a loud systolic murmur out that entoptic objects are seen inverted, the reason was audible over the whole cardiac while the region, being that the rays of visible direction proceeding from pulmonary second sound was accentuated. On examinathe aperture do not cross at the nodal point of the eye, tion by the Roentgen rays the cardiac shadow was distinctly and that as the path of the projected shadow of any entoptic both to the right and the left. The general conenlarged object corresponds to the path of the incident rays crossing dition of the child until the age of 14 months was fairly at the pin aperture only the enlargement of the image is satisfactory, but from that time, either during or immein the direct ratio of the distance of the pinhole from the diately preceding the act of defsecation, severe attacks of pupil to its distance from the illuminated screen on which anginal character developed, lasting from one to 12 hours. the shadow is projected. He proceeds to show how by a 1 THE simple calculation the size of a musca can be determined LANCET, Jan. 6th (p. 51) and March 31st (p. 808), 1894.

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