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In 59 patients, 18 to 82 years old, with pleural exudates, a number of 78 needle biopsies were performed in view of establishing the etiologic diagnosis. The diagnosis was: pleural tuberculosis in 9 cases, acute or chronic non-tuberculous inflammation in 8 cases, postinfectious sequelae in 6 cases, secondary malignant neoplasia in 10 cases; 2 mesotheliomas, and in 24 cases the aspect was normal or the minimal alterations found were not conclusive. The proportion of confirmations was of 81% for tuberculosis and 37% for cancer. The method is recommended as being of particular value in establishing the etiologic diagnosis of pleural exudates.

Some cytochemical reactions were performed in order to complete the diagnosis possibilities of pleural effusions from patients with neoplasia and with other diseases. Qualitative reactions were performed on the smears for alkaline phosphatase (samples from 46 patients) for nonspecific esterases (samples from 30 patients), for acid and neutral mucopolysaccharides (samples from 35 patients) and for nucleic acids (samples from 85 patients). On the presented material the presence of alkaline phosphatase could be considered as a malignancy criterium. The activity of nonspecific esterases in the overwhelming majority of the cases cannot represent an aid in distinguishing neoplastic cells. Acid and neutral mucopolysaccarides do not generally constitute a neoplastic criterium, but a helping element in the diagnosis of some mesotheliomas. The evidencing of nucleic acids is very important for the demonstration of nucleoli which are considered as a principal criterium in malignancy.

The authors studied the ratio between the density of the Haversian canals and the area occupied by these in the diaphyseal cortex of the main long bones in man. The interrelation was estimated by means of the correlation coefficient, which varies between -0.135 for the fibula and -0.168 for the humerus. It was found that the two parameters were inversely proportional: the greater the number of canals in a given area, the smaller the relative proportion of the area occupied by them.