MISCELLANY. 



761 



imity to the sun, and the writer had the 

 satisfaction of watching the delicate, silvery 

 ring inclosing her disk, even when the 

 planet was only the sun's semi -diameter 

 from his limb. This was at 4 p. m., or less 

 than five hours before the beginning of the 

 transit. The ring was brightest on the side 

 toward the sun the crescent proper. On 

 the opposide side the thread of light was 

 duller and of a slightly yellowish tinge. On 

 the northern limb of the planet, some 60 

 or 80 from the point opposite the sun, the 

 ring for a small space was fainter and ap- 

 parently narrower than elsewhere. A sim- 

 ilar appearance was observed on the same 

 limb in 1866. The morning after the transit 

 the sky was slightly hazy, and the planet 

 could not be found. On the day following 

 (the 10th) the crescent, extending to more 

 than three-quarters of a circle, was seen 

 with beautiful distinctness in the 9-inch 

 equatorial, and on this and two subsequent 

 days measurements were taken with the 

 filar micrometer for the purpose of deter- 

 mining the extent cf the cusps, and conse- 

 quently the horizontal refraction of the at- 

 mosphere of the planet. These observations 

 give a mean of 44'. 5 as the horizontal re- 

 fraction of Venus's atmosphere, or about 

 one-quarter greater than that of the earth's. 

 Six measurements of the diameter of the 

 planet on the 10th give 63".l. Twenty-four 

 on the 11th give 63".'75." 



Blondeau on the Causes of Disease. In 



the Monileur Scientifique for November 

 there is a very ingenious essay, by Dr. C. 

 Blondeau, "on the causes of disease, in which 

 the author endeavors to show that morbid 

 states are always the result of disordered 

 cellular function. His argument is sub- 

 stantially as follows : The cell exists before 

 the organized being, virtually includes it, 

 and survives it after the play of its organs 

 has been arrested. Hence, in order to un- 

 derstand the phenomena of the organiza- 

 tion, we must study the cell which, when its 

 functions are not disordered, is the primary 

 cause of life and motion, but, when they 

 are interfered with, of death. During life, 

 every thing depends on the cell when the 

 animal respires, the cell acts the chief part 

 in that function ; when a muscle contracts, 

 it is the muscular element, the cell, that 



feels the action of heat and causes the 

 muscle to move. The same is to be said of 

 nervous and glandular action. In a word, 

 the life of the orgauism is simply the re- 

 sultant of the life of the ceils, their indi- 

 vidual existence being coordinated to sub- 

 serve a perfectly definite object. When 

 this coordination is interfered with, we have 

 disease. And hence, if we would reestab- 

 lish the equilibrium, we must remove the 

 obstacles which hinder the cell in the dis- 

 charge of its functions ; but to this end we 

 must understand the nature of the agents 

 which so interfere with its functions. These 

 agents are all the poisons, whether organic 

 or inorganic whether viruses or mineral 

 substances. The remedies to be employed, 

 therefore, are counter-poisons, also derived 

 from these two kingdoms. Innocuous vi- 

 ruses introduced into the animal economy 

 may neutralize the dangerous effects of 

 those which are toxic, just as certain min- 

 eral salts may destroy the disease-germ 

 without endangering the life of the patient. 

 Thus the germ of small-pox is neutralized 

 by vaccine virus, and the syphilitic virus by 

 the salts of mercury. 



When it has been demonstrated that dis- 

 ease is the result of disordered cell-secre- 

 tion, then medicine will rest upon a scien- 

 tific basis. But, so long as we persist in re- 

 garding the human body as a mechanism set 

 in motion by the same forces which act 

 upon inorganic substances, we shall never 

 be able, says the author, to explain the ac- 

 tion of poisons on tbe organism. Until it 

 is admitted that the blood is, for the most 

 part, composed of organized living cells, 

 that these cells act the principal part in 

 forming and maintaining all our organs, and 

 that they may undergo modifications which 

 lead to serious maladies, we shall never be 

 able to trace the disturbances occurring in 

 the economy to any certain and definite 

 cause, or to discover the proper remedies. 



Tree-Planting in Towns. The Ameri- 

 can Garden makes an earnest plea for the 

 planting of trees in the streets of cities, as 

 a sanitary measure. Growing plants assim- 

 ilate the carbon of carbonic acid, discharg- 

 ing its oxygen into the atmosphere. The 

 respiration of men and animals and the 

 consumption of fuel load the atmosphere 



