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scopical examination of these enlarged nerves, however, discovered only an apparent increase in the fibrous investment of the nerve-bundles. That the vomiting and even some of the other symptoms of Addison’s disease may be induced by a morbid condition of the supra-renal nerves seems, nevertheless, the most probable supposition; but it must not be forgotten that this is, after all, a secondary question, as the condition of the nerves is a consequence, not a cause, of the disease of the supra-renal capsules.

Seat of discoloration.- Microscopical examination of the discoloured skin of Addison’s disease shews the discoloration to be due, as a rule, to deposit of pigment in the rete mucosum, the more superficial layers of the epidermis and the true skin remaining generally uncoloured. This distribution of pigment in certain layers of the skin only is not peculiar to Addison’s disease, but resembles that found on examining the skin of the darker races of men, and Mr. Hutchinson found exactly the same distribution of colouring-matter in the skin of a man who had suffered from yellow fever in the Crimea, and who was bronzed, without disease of the supra-renal capsules. In one case, however, the epidermis is reported to have been loaded with pigment, which in many places was collected in greater quantities in its deeper layers, but in others was equally distributed throughout it. In the third case prefixed to this paper, I found, in addition to the usual deposit in the rete mucosum, slight traces of colour in some of the superficial scales of the epidermis, others being perfectly normal; there were also small masses of pigment deposited here and there in the cutis. Whether in the rete mucosum, or in other parts of the skin, the pigment is arranged in granular masses; and the margin between the pigmented layers of skin and the super- and sub-jacent layers is always abrupt and well-defined, and follows the undulations of the rete mucosum, even when, as in the case just referred to, there are scattered deposits in other parts of the skin. In a very small number of cases pigmentary deposits have been found in the peritoneum, or other internal organs, as in the second case prefixed to this paper, but it is very doubtful whether these can be regarded as in any way connected with the disease in the capsules, seeing that precisely similar deposits are found in chronic tubercle of the peritoneum (which was one of the complications in the case referred to), and in some other chronic diseases. In many cases the hair has become visibly darker along with the darkening of the skin, and, on microscopical examination after death, pigment has been found in the hair as well as the rete mucosum. I

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