It occasionally happens, that, nearly about the same time, most of the patients in a ward of an hospital shall have their ulcers rendered unhealthy. They become foul, dark coloured, and spread: The discharge is thin, and the pain is greater than formerly. The application of cloths dipped in gastric juice is sometimes of service in these sores, and is one of the best remedies; but, not unfrequently, the patient must be removed to a different situation before a cure can be obtained. Having made these detached remarks on some specific ulcers, I shall, in the succeeding dissertations, consider, at greater length, others, which are, in the general estimation, considered as more dangerous and alarming. DISSERTATION IV. _On the Spongoid Inflammation._ The disease which I am now going to consider, has either not been described at all by any author, or has, when it was noticed, been considered as of a cancerous nature. It is perhaps one of the most alarming diseases to which we are subjected; because, as yet, we know of no specific remedy; and an operation can only be useful at a time when it is very difficult to persuade the patient to submit to it. I have named it the spongoid inflammation, from that spongy elastic feel which peculiarly characterises the disease, and which continues even after ulceration takes place. This disease begins with a small colourless tumor, which, if there be no thick covering over it, such as the fascia of a muscle, or the aponeurosis of the foot, is soft and elastic, but tense if otherwise. It is at first free from uneasiness; but, by degrees, a sharp acute pain darts occasionally through it, more and more frequently, until the sensation becomes continued. For a considerable time, the tumor is smooth and even, but afterwards it projects irregularly in one or more points; and the skin at this place becomes of a livid red colour, and feels thinner. It here readily yields to pressure, but instantly bounds up again. Small openings now form in these projections, through which is discharged a thin bloody matter. Almost immediately after these tumors burst, a small fungus protrudes, like a papilla, and this rapidly increases, both in breadth and heighth, and has exactly the appearance of a carcinomatous fungus, and frequently bleeds profusely. The matter is thin, and exceedingly fœtid, and the pain becomes of the smarting kind. The integuments, for a little around these ulcers, are red, and tender. After ulceration takes place, the neighbouring glands swell, and assume exactly the spongy qualities of the primary tumor. If the patient still survive the disease in its present advanced progress, similar tumors form in other parts of the body, and the patient dies hectic.