178 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



dated in the end of the tail, and consists of a blackish, re- 

 curved point, pierced near its tip by two small slits, which 

 allow the venom to pass into the wound when inflicted. But 

 even with the most venomous species the result is not an in- 

 stantaneous death in the case of the larger vertebrates, a cer- 

 tain length of time being required to allow the physiological 

 effect of the poison to develop itself. The venom is a color- 

 less and limpid liquid, acid, soluble in water, but little so in 

 alcohol, insoluble in ether, and of a density a little greater 

 than that of water. A microscopical examination shows it 

 to be a perfectly transparent liquid, with a few epithelial cells 

 and fine granules. 



When we consider the small quantity of poison which a 

 scorpion can emit, scarcely the three hundredth part of a 

 grain, and bear in mind that this may cause death in a large 

 dog, we may well admit that the animal is in reality much 

 more poisonous than even the rattlesnake, of whose venom a 

 much larger amount is usually injected into the wound. 



Our author, after narrating an extensive series of experi- 

 ments, made principally upon the frog, came to the conclu- 

 sion that the venom, in its poisonous influence, acts directly 

 upon the red globules of the blood, and in no other way, caus- 

 ing them to lose their individuality and to become agglutina- 

 ted together, so as to constitute masses, which obstruct the 

 entrance to the capillaries, and thus stop the circulation, ulti- 

 mately producing death. This is generally unaccompanied 

 by any inflammation, the skin in the frog assuming a violet 

 tint, and seeming as if injected. The particular member in- 

 fected generally becomes completely rigid. G Z?, Sept. 5, 407. 



ABBE MOIGXO OX THE MODERN ARGUMENTS RELATIVE TO 



THE AXTIQUITY OF MAX* 



During some remarks at the late meeting of the British 

 Association, which followed the reading of a paper by the 

 Abbe Richard upon certain flint implements found in Joshua's 

 tomb at Galgula and at Mount Sinai, the Abbe Moigno, the 

 well-known editor of Les Mondes, said that he had spent nine 

 months of a painful and dangerous leisure given him by the 

 Franco-German and the civil wa*rs in studying thoroughly 

 the great and solemn question of the indefinite or very re- 

 mote antiquity of man, in so far as it had been proved by the 



