A unique porous material with controlled pore characteristics can be fabricated by the freeze-drying process, which uses the slurry of organic material as the sublimable vehicle mixed with powders. The essential feature in this process is that during the solidification of the slurry, the dendrites of the organic material should repel the dispersed particles into the interdendritic region. In the present work, a model experiment is attempted using some transparent organic materials mixed with glass powders, which enable in-situ observation. The organic materials used are camphor-naphthalene mixture (hypo- and hypereutectic composition), salol, camphene, and pivalic acid. Among these materials, the constituent phases in camphor-naphthalene system, i.e. naphthalene plate, camphor dendrite, and camphornaphthalene eutectic exclusively repel the glass powders. This result suggests that the control of organic material composition in the binary system is useful for producing a porous body with the required pore structure.

Cholangiocarcinoma is a relatively rare neoplasm in animals and humans. A four-year-old, neutered male ferret presented with depression, anorexia, cachexia diarrhea, and icterus. Necropsy findings included ascites multiple white nodules on the surface of the liver, stomach and duodenum, gross enlargement of the bile duct and right atrium, hemorrhage of the gastric and duodena mucosa, and icterus of the mesenteric fat. Infiltrative well differentiated neoplastic biliary epithelial cells forming ducts and acini with a prominent collagenous stroma were observed on microscopic examination of neoplastic lesions within the liver, mesentery, and the serosa of the stomach and duodenum. This is a report on a rare case of obstructive jaundice due to cholangiocarcinoma in a ferret.