356 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



in the same garrisons. The returns examined by Dr. Balfour go very 

 far to disapprove of the hypothesis sometimes started, that the protec- 

 tive powers of vaccination became gradually weaker, and at length 

 die out. The returns from the navy also give results more favorable 

 than those from the army. From this it appears, that although abso- 

 lute immunity from small pox was not attained to, yet exemption in a 

 remarkable degree was afforded by vaccination. 



SIMPLE REMEDY FOR THE ASTHMA. 



DR. FARROT in a communication published in the Repertoire de 

 Pharmacie, 1852, gives the following simple remedy for the asthma. 

 Take a strongly saturated solution of nitrate of potassa. Dip tinder 

 into it, and then allow it to dry. Procure a wide-mouth phial, the cork 

 of which has an aperture in the centre, so as to admit any hollow 

 tube whatever, (a pipe closed at the end would suffice.) Light the 

 piece of tinder, and place it in the phial. Then cause the patient to 

 inhale the gases that are disengaged, either through the mouth or 

 nostrils. At the end of a few respirations he will find relief which 

 will augment. Such is a very simple process which I have for a long- 

 time used with great success, in cases of asthma. In regard to an 

 explanation of this mode of treatment it is supposed that a small por- 

 tion of oxygen, disengaged by the combustion of the nitrate of 

 potassa, is inhaled by the patient. It is known that in asthmatic 

 patients the sanguinous circulation is incomplete in the lungs, that the 

 blood is imperfectly regenerated, that it is black, and does not burn its 

 excess of carbon. By the oxygen absorbed, therefore, combustion 

 may be facilitated. 



ELECTRO PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES ON INDUCED CONTRACTION. 



PROF. MATTUCCI, in a communication published in the Philosoph- 

 ical Journal, gives several new experiments on induced contrac- 

 tion, which he thinks lend an increasing probability to the conclusion 

 that this phenomena is due to an electric discharge ; and that muscular 

 contraction is in some way accompanied by a development of electricity. 

 The results of these experiments may be thus summed up. 1. The 

 cause of induced contraction is an electrical phenomenon which is devel- 

 oped in the act of contraction and which consists in a different state of 

 electricity in the different points of the contracted limb. 2. This 

 electric phenomenon like the contraction which produces it, lasts only 

 for an instant. 3. These electric states developed by contraction 

 tend to produce electric currents which circulate in opposite directions 

 across a conducting arch interposed between the two limbs which 

 contract at the same time. 4. One of the experiments so arranged 

 proved not only the existence of these currents, but direction ; leading 

 the author to the ultimate conclusion, that whatever the theory of 

 these phenomena may be, it is certain that they demonstrate the pro- 



