TIG ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ness, heat, and swelling. If a small piece of the epidermis (whieh 

 appears raised as in a blister) be stripped off, no serum escapes. The 

 epidermis becomes detached by degrees, and when the exfoliation is 

 complete a brown spot remains, which testifies for a long time to the 

 energetic action of the acid. After a number of experiments on bis 

 own arms, and the arms of his friends, M. Lemaire assures us that the 

 smarting never lasts longer than an hour. The redness of the skin 

 endures about 20 days, but the inflammation never extends .beyond 

 the part to which the acid has been applied. 



Action on the Respiratory Ore/mis. From experiments on mice and 

 horses, the author concludes that the higher animals may breathe the 

 diluted vapor of the acid for along time without discomfort or danger. 



Mode of AH ion. The general fact resulting from the author's ex- 

 periments is that phenic acid acts on plants and lower animals as a 

 violent poison. 



When the action of the acid on a semi-transparent leaf is examined, 

 it is easy to prove that it coagulates albumen, and that the paren- 

 chyma and epiderm arc contracted. This explains how it is that mi- 

 crophytes and microzoons die so quickly in its presence. All animals 

 with a naked skin, and those which live in the water, die sooner than 

 those which live in the air and have a solid envelop. The difference 

 appears to result from the power of absorption, which is much greater 

 in the former than the latter. 



When frogs are placed in a saturated solution (five per cent) of the 

 acid, the skin shrivels and becomes milky from the coagulation of the 

 albumen. The branchiae of fishes also become white. This coagula- 

 tion of albumen led the author to suppose that the death of the ani- 

 mals resulted from the coagulation of their blood. To verify this 



*~j ' 



supposition, he examined, under the microscope, the action of the 

 acid on the branchiae of the larvae of salamanders, in which the circu- 

 lation of the blood is easily seen. He then observed that, although 

 the solution arrested the circulation instantaneously, it altered neither 

 the form nor appearance of the blood-globules. All the change con- 

 sisted in their immobility. When the blood is coagulated by mineral 

 acids the form of the globules is changed. With carbolic acid noth- 

 ing of the kind takes place. Besides this, a post-mortem examination 

 of a dog and horse proved that the blood was not coagulated. Phenic 

 acid, then, does not kill by producing coagulation of the blood! Its 

 action on the blood-globules, however, leads M. Lemaire to think that 

 these globules arc living beings. 



Insects exposed to a weak dose of the acid become asphyxiated, but 

 they soon recover in pure air. 



When a gramme or two dissolved in water is administered to a 

 dog, the animal falls as if struck with lightning, but soon recovers 

 again. The sudden fall the author ascribes to violent pain, and the 

 rapidity with which it is absorbed and carried to the nervous centres. 

 It is on the nervous system, then, that phenic acid principally acts. 



COHESION FIGURES OF LIQUIDS. 



In a communication made to the British Association on the above 

 subject by Mr. C. Tomlinson, the author stated that his researches 

 began as far back as 1861, since when he had among other results ap- 



