The study of fat embolism has been comparatively neglected by Americans. It has never been the subject of a paper read before the American Medical Association, and in the perhaps 250 cases that have been reported in the literature not over a dozen have been contributed by writers of this country.
These facts, with an experience of two cases in as many years, led to a study of the subject and to the belief that it is deserving of more consideration than is usually given it, and to a presentation of the subject, at this time, in the hope of stimulating an interest that might result in more definite knowledge.
HISTORY.
Magendie,1 in 1827, was the first to demonstrate, experimentally, that the injection of oil into a vein might produce dyspnea and even death. In 1839 R. W. Smith2 noted two cases of fatty heart with free oil in the