598 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



existence of man in prehistoric times, one of these, by M. De 

 Saussure, describing the contents of a cavern occupied during 

 the reindeer period, while another paper, by Professor Desor, 

 had reference to objects of the bronze age from the Lake of 

 Bienne, where they were found under four feet of mud. Dr. 

 Waller publishes a paper upon the absorption by the skin of 

 different substances dissolved in chloroform, such absolution 

 being generally much more rapid than when alcohol or acid 

 solutions of the same substance were employed. Thus, in 

 experimenting upon an albino rat, he found that if one of the 

 feet of the animal were plunged into a chloroformic solution 

 of atropia, a marked dilatation of the pupils of the eye was 

 observed in two or three minutes, while this substance dis- 

 solved in alcohol produced the same effect only after a much 

 longer period. 



Professor Plateau presents a paper upon the flight of cole- 

 optera, and Dr. Marcet gives the result of investigations upon 

 himself while ascending various high mountains, especially 

 Mont Blanc, showing a variation of temperature of the body 

 at different altitudes during repose and on the march. He 

 found that, during the ascent, the temperature fell consider- 

 ably, but that it soon became normal on coming to rest. The 

 unpleasant sensations experienced at great elevations are also 

 accompanied by a remarkable depression of the temperature 

 of the body. M. Humbert announces a curious instance of 

 mistaken instinct in animals, in the fact that a specimen of 

 sphinx, or hawk-moth, was observed to be attracted by the 

 representations of flowers painted upon the tapestry of an 

 apartment, and that it applied its trunk successively to many 

 of them without discovering the illusion, showing that some 

 insects, at least, are guided by sight rather than by smell. 



Professor A. de Candolle suggests the inquiry as to wheth- 

 er it may not be possible to discover some remains of animals 

 and of plants belonging to the period of the elevation of the 

 Alps, and remaining buried in the eternal snow since that 

 time. He thinks that such fossils may yet be found in the 

 cavities or fissures at the summits of high mountains, and pro- 

 poses to prosecute inquiries in this direction. 



We present, in this brief summary, a mention of some only 

 of the more popular and interesting communications to the 

 Genevan Society, there being still a number, of more or less 





