L--, twenty-two years old, was moderately tall, with a narrow chest, and had never enjoyed good health, particularly for the six years preceding the time when he entered the prison at Bicetre, when he indulged in the disgusting practice of onanism. In the course of January, 1819, he was affected with general numbness, with frequent cough and expectoration of mucus: these symptoms were occasionally attended with slight fever. When admitted to the infirmary, the 1st of February, he complained, in addition to the symptoms already mentioned, of a violent pain in the posterior part of the neck. A slight swelling was seen at the level of the first and second cervical vertebræ, and pressure on that part was painful; the head was bent to the left side, and remained motionless; the thoracic abdominal limbs were numb; and deglutition was painful. Local resolvent frictions, blisters, and moxas were used. The 15th of February, he was affected with hemoptysis, which yielded in two days to the use of bleeding and astringents. The vertebral disease, however, generally made progress, like that of the chest, which seemed to relax. In July, the thoracic limbs were perfectly paralyzed; and in August, this was true also of the abdominal limbs. At this period, the head was absolutely immoveable; the phthisis seemed as yet in the second degree. Finally, the patient died suddenly, from moving his head, while the attendants were changing him. _Post-mortem Examination._ The soft parts of the posterior region of the neck were changed to a whitish, lardaceous substance; the right condyle of the occipital bone was carious: there was also a deep caries of the upper part of the right lateral mass of the first vertebræ, and of the odontoid process. The transverse and odontoid ligaments were degenerated and softened; and the medulla oblongata presented a kind of strangulation, resulting from the compression caused by the left posterior part of the edge of the occipital foramen: in fact, there was a dislocation of this bone, on the first vertebræ. The cerebrum was unaffected; the right lung was tuberculous, and very small; that of the left side was also tuberculous, but was larger. The peritoneum presented some marks of inflammation. In the preceding cases, the caries of the vertebræ was not attended with a congested abscess. The following case, published by Levêque Lasource, will present to us this symptom, which is so common in this disease:--