330 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



was nearly three feet, thus proving, I believe, to be the largest ser- 

 pent that was ever authentically heard of." 



Specific against the Bite of Serpents. During the pasf year a Mr. 

 Underwood made numerous public experiments at Melbourne, Aus- 

 tralia, with the object of proving that he was in possession of a spe- 

 cific against the bites of even the most venomous serpents. He 

 allowed himself, as well as several rabbits, to be bitten by different 

 serpents, amongst others, the diamond snake, one of the most dan- 

 gerous in Australia ; neither he nor the rabbits suffered any ill effects in 

 consequence, but the sum he asked appeared exorbitant, and the secret 

 was accordingly not divulged. However, the Cornwall Chronicle 

 asserts that the mysterious specific is no other than the polypodium 

 jilix-mas, or male fern. The antidote is prepared by simply infusing 

 an ounce of the leaves of the plant nearest the root, in spirits of wine 

 or brandy, and preserving the tincture for use in a well-stoppered 

 bottle. If the properties of this plant are found to be really what is 

 described, it is desirable to try whether it would counteract the poison 

 arising from wounds made during anatomical dissections, to which so 

 many medical men and students fall victims. 



On the Larynx of the White Man and the Negro. -At the last meet- 

 ing of the British Association, Dr. G. D. Gibbs, in a paper on the 

 above subject, stated that special differences existed in the construc- 

 tion of the larynx of the white man and the negro, which consisted 

 in the invariable presence of the cartilage of Wrisberg, generally 

 absent or quite rudimentary in the white race; the obliquity of the 

 plane of the vocal cords from within outwards, but varying in degree ; 

 and of the more or less pendent position of the ventricles, which per- 

 mitted of a view of their fundus with the laryngoscope. The two 

 latter conditions he had never seen in the white race in an examination 

 of some 900 healthy living persons. These facts were made out from 

 an examination of 58 negroes, including 15 post mortem. 



SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



In the recent proceedings of the Royal Society is inserted an account 

 of 20 experiments relating to this question performed by Dr. G. W. 

 Child. The substances used, were, in ten experiments, milk; and in 

 ten, fragments of meat and water. These were in all cases placed in a 

 bulb of glass about 2-i inches in diameter, and having two narrow and 

 long necks. The experiments were divided into five series of four 

 experiments each. In one series the bulbs were filled with air pre- 

 viously passed through a porcelain tube containing fragments of 

 pumice-stone, and heated to vivid redness in a furnace. In the others 

 they were filled respectively with carbonic acid, hydrogen, oxygen, 

 and nitrogen gases. In each scries two experiments were made 

 with milk and two with meat; and each substance was boiled in one 

 case and not boiled in the other. The joints of the apparatus were 

 ibrmed either by means of non-vulcanized caoutchouc tubing or India- 

 rubber corks previously boiled in a solution of potash ; and in every 

 case, at the e-nd of the experiment, the necks of the bulb were sealed 

 by the lamp. The time of boiling such of the substances as were boiled 

 varied from five to 20 minutes, and the boiling took place in the bulb, 

 and with the stream of gas or air still passing through. The sub- 



