hydrophobia, but that I have cured serpents' bites always, without fail, I can declare in truth.'

Mr. Fischer then quotes Dr. Urban's practice from Hufeland's German Medical Journal. He had six methods, but his most successful was to apply a thick pledget, soaked in any saline solution, to each wound, or to each place where the teeth had made a mark without breaking the skin, and retain them there by bandages. The best solution is of salt, one ounce, or one ounce and a half, to a pound of plain water, and the wounds are to be kept constantly moistened with it. The lint is to be renewed and soaked twice a day; the places wetted every two hours, and even washed by the patient, especially if any indications of relapse, as itching or pain, should manifest themselves.

A case is then quoted from the Kent Herald, and Morning Herald of July 28, 1827, as follows: A friend of ours was some years since bitten by a dog, which a few hours afterwards died raving mad. Immediately upon receiving the bite, he rubbed salt for some time into the wound, and, in consequence, never experienced the least inconvenience from the bite, the saline qualities of the salt having evidently neutralized the venom, and prevented, in all probability, a melancholy death by hydrophobia.'

That which induced Mr. Fischer to try the above remedy, in the case of serpents, was a page of the late Bishop Loskiell's (with whom I was personally acquainted), in his History of the Missions of the Moravian Church in North America, which says, as far as I recollect, that at least among some tribes, they were not at all alarmed about the bites of serpents, having always in use such a sure remedy as salt for the cure of them, so much so, that they would suffer a bite for the sake of a glass of rum. It was this that induced me to try the cure of venomous bites with salt, and the trial has exceeded my expectations.' P. S. The advice of killing all dogs is neither practicable nor necessary: apply salt to man and dog, the bitten and the biter, all will be most probably well *? &c.

8. ON RESTORATION FROM DROWNING BY INSUFFLATION of the LUNGS.

At the sitting of the 22d May of the Royal Academy of Medicine, M. Piorry reported the results of his experiments on the insufflation of the lungs of living rabbits, of the lungs of sheep, and man, after death. He concluded, first, that insufflation seldom causes rupture of the lungs unless too long and too violently continued; that death is caused by a mixture of air and blood in the heart, or by a double hydrothorax, or by the distension of the abdomen; that this insufflation may cause subpleural but not interlobular emphysema; and that insufflation of the digestive tube is almost as promptly mortal as that of the lungs by preventing the descent of the diaphragm and impeding respiration. Secondly, that crepitation always indicates

• Med. Journal, v. 49.

disease, and depends on froth in the bronchi, or on the mixture of air with an effused fluid, giving rise to rale, and causing asphyxia or death. 3dly. That the effusion of blood into the trachea from a wound is dangerous, as it is expectorated or absorbed with difficulty, and is disposed to be converted into froth. 4th. If water pass into the lungs during submersion, it is easily poured off by giving a declining position to the superior parts of the body; but if a person respire on the surface of the water, the water which passes into the trachea will be frothy and not easily removed. It is, therefore, necessary to remove all water before we commence insufflation. 5th. We should remember that the fluid effused during the agony (death) may be the sole cause of extinguishing life. Many members presented confirmatory reflections on the opinion of M. Piorry as to the innocuity of insufflation in a great majority of cases*.

MM. Leroy, Magendie and Dumeril are opposed to M. Piorry's opiniont.

9. SURGICAL RECOVERY OF AN EYE.

M. Maunoir, professor of surgery at Geneva, having performed the operation for cataract, by extraction, upon a man eighty-two years of age, weakened by an operation for hernia, which he had endured six weeks before, perceived to his regret that, although the pupil remained beautifully black and perfectly intact, the anterior and posterior chambers of the eye were not replenished, the cornea became sunk and wrinkled, a few bubbles of air penetrated the anterior chamber, and the patient had no vision. Without yielding to the first melancholy impression, the operator, by a happy presence of mind, conceived the hopes of filling the cavity: he sent immediately for some distilled water, warmed it, placed the patient on his back, and filled the external orbit of the eye with the water, opened the eyelid, and raised the flap of the cornea. The water then penetrated into all the accessible cavities, the folds of the cornea disappeared, and its convexity was restored. Having kept the eye shut for some minutes, he then directed the patient to open it, and found it in the most satisfactory condition; the patient distinguished all the objects presented to him as well as after the most successful operation. A slight pain was felt after the introduction of the water, which went off after a short time. From that time the eye healed without difficulty, and when opened a week after the operation it was free from swelling and inflammation; the cornea was perfectly united, but the pupil was a little obscure, the sight feeble, and the patient complained that he did not see so well as immediately after the operation. But six days after the bandage was removed the shade of the pupil was much diminished, the sight grew stronger from day to day, and no doubt was entertained that the patient would soon be able to read common printt.

* Archives General. + Med. Jour. v. 73,

Bib. Universelle, Oct. 1829.

10. ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING BOTH THE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF WOOL.-(M. Petri.)

A memoir upon this subject has been presented to the Academy of Sciences, and reported upon by M. Coquebert Montbret. In the sheep, says M. Petri, the nourishing fluids are naturally distributed between the flesh, the fat, and the wool. By frequent shearings, made when the animal is young, these fluids may be determined in greater abundance towards the skin, and will then nourish the woollen fibre. This theory, he says, he has applied with great success, and he finds that, besides increasing the quantity of wool, its quality is also very much improved, and the staple rendered finer. This improvement may be transmitted from one generation to another, so that whole flocks may in this way be converted into fine wool animals, only by taking care to reserve those animals for reproduction which yield the most improved produce, and paying attention, at the same time, to the choice of food, and to the other

circumstances and cares which are necessary. It appears that

M. Petri has not as yet had time to prove the result of prolonged trials conducted upon these principles*.

11. VISION OF BIRDS OF PREY.-(Dr. J. Johnson.)

It always appeared to us most extraordinary, indeed unaccountable, that birds of prey could scent carcasses at such immense distances as they are said to do. We were led to scepticism on this subject some twenty years ago, while observing the concourse of birds of prey from every point of the horizon to a corpse floating down the river Ganges, and that during the north-east monsoon, when the wind blew steadily from one point of the compass for months in succession. It was extremely difficult to imagine that the effluvia from a putrefying body in the water could emanate in direct opposition to the current of air, and impinge on the olfactories of birds many miles distant. Such, however, were the dicta of natural history, and we could only submit to the general opinion. We have no doubt, now that we know the general opinion to be something wrong, that it was by means of the optic rather than the olfactory nerves that the said birds smelled out their suit.'

The toucan is a bird which ranks next to the vulture in discerning, whether by smell or by sight, the carrion on which it feeds. The immense size of its bill, which is many times larger than its head, was supposed to present in its honeycomb texture an extensive prolongation of the olfactory nerve, and thus to account for its power of smelling at great distances; but on accurate examination, the texture above mentioned in the bill is found to be mere diploe, to give the bill strength. Now the eye of this bird is somewhat larger

* Revue Encyclopédique, xlvi. 499.

than the whole brain; and it has been ascertained, by direct experiments, that where very putrid carrion was inclosed in a basket from which effluvia could freely emanate, but which concealed the offal from sight, it attracted no attention from vultures and other birds of prey till it was exposed to their view, when they immediately recognised their object, and others came rapidly from different quarters of the horizon where they were invisible a few minutes before. This sudden appearance of birds of prey from immense distances and in every direction, however the wind may blow, is accounted for by their soaring to an altitude. In this situation their prey on the ground is seen by them, however minute it may be; and therefore their appearance in our sight is merely their descent from high regions of the atmosphere to within the scope of our optics. The toucan in India generally arrives a little in the rear of the vulture, and remains till the larger bird is glutted; while smaller birds of prey, at a still more retired distance, pay similar homage to the toucan*.

12. NEW SPECIES OF BRITISH SNAKE.

Mr. T. M. Simmons has discovered, near Dumfries, in Scotland, a species of snake which seems to be new to our naturalists, and which has been appropriately called Coluber natrix: it has no ridged line on the middle of its dorsal scales, which are extremely simple and smooth. The number of scales under the tail is about eighty, and the plates on the belly one hundred and sixty-two. The only specimen hitherto found measured five inches, was of a pale colour, with pairs of reddish-brown stripes from side to side over the back, somewhat zig-zag, with intervening spots on the sides. It comes nearest in character to a species of snake (Coluber austriacus, Linn.) which is common in France and Germany, and which has smooth dorsal scales, like the Dumfries snake. The latter, also, if the figure published by Sowerby be correct, has large scales on the head, which proves that it cannot be the young of the common viper, which, however, had also ridged scales.-J. R. †

13. ON THE EXISTENCE OF ANIMALCULA IN SNOW.—
(Dr. Mure.)

The following account was sent by Dr. J. E. Mure in a letter to Dr. Silliman. When the winter had made a considerable progress without much frost, there happened a heavy fall of snow. Apprehending that I might not have an opportunity of filling my house with ice, I threw in snow, perhaps enough to half fill it. There was afterwards severely cold weather, and I filled the remainder with ice. About August the waste and consumption of the ice brought us down to the snow, when it was discovered that a glass of water, which was cooled with it, contained hundreds of animal* Medico-Chirurgical Review. Nat. Mag., ii. 473.

VOL. I.

+ Mag. Nat. Hist., ii. 458.

Ост. 1830.

cules. I then examined another glass of water, out of the same pitcher, and with the aid of a microscope, before the snow was put into it, found it perfectly clear and pure: the snow was then thrown into it, and on solution the water again exhibited the same phenomenon-hundreds of animalcules, visible to the naked eye with acute attention, and, when viewed through the microscope, resembling most diminutive shrimps, and, wholly unlike the eels discovered in the acetous acid, were seen in the full enjoyment of animated nature.

'I caused holes to be dug in several parts of the mass of snow in the ice-house, and to the centre of it, and in the most unequivocal and repeated experiments had similar results; so that my family did not again venture to introduce the snow-ice into the water they drank, which had been a favourite method, but used it as an external refrigerant for the pitcher.

These little animals may class with the amphibia which have cold blood, and are generally capable, in a low temperature, of a torpid state of existence. Hence their icy immersion did no violence to their constitution, and the possibility of their revival by heat is well sustained by analogy; but their generation, their parentage, and their extraordinary transmigration, are to me subjects of profound astonishment*.'

14. ANTIPATHY OF THE CHAMELEON TO BLACK.

Whatever may be the cause, the fact seems to be certain, that the chameleon has an antipathy to things of a black colour. One which Forbes kept uniformly avoided a black board which was hung up in the chamber; and, what is most remarkable, when it was forcibly brought before the black board, it trembled violently, and assumed a black colour t. It may be something of the same kind which makes bulls and turkey-cocks dislike the colour of scarlet; a fact of which there can be no doubt .

15. PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA IN THE GULF OF ST.

LAWRENCE.

Captain Bonnycastle, R.E., whilst coming up the gulf on the 7th September, 1826, observed this phenomenon under the following interesting circumstances. At two o'clock, A.M., the mate, whose watch it was on deck, suddenly aroused the captain in great alarm, from an unusual appearance on the lee bow. The night was starlight; but suddenly the sky became overcast in the direction of the high land of Cornwallis county, and a rapid, instantaneous, and immensely brilliant light, resembling the aurora borealis, shot out of the hitherto gloomy and dark sea on the lee bow, and was so vivid that it lighted

Silliman's Journal, xviii. 57.

+ Oriental Memoirs, p. 350.

J. R., Nat. Mag., ii. 269.