276 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the heat is rapidly diminished, so is death produced in less time- 

 When by a wound or poison the temperature of a man is reduced 

 many degrees, his life is in danger from that very cause. It is thus in 

 cholera, palsy, &c. 



In cases of poisoning it has been found that the temperature of the 

 person always decreased, and Chossut, who injected opium into the 

 veins of a dog, found the temperature diminish from 105 to 62 Fah. 

 M. Sequard believes that many poisons may kill simply by their action 

 in redticing animal heat. He has found that some poisons which kill 

 animals when there is no obstacle to prevent the diminution of the 

 body's temperature, will not destroy life when the temperature 

 is sustained by artificial means to its normal degree. Equal dos- 

 es of poisons were given to two animals as much like one anoth- 

 er as possible. One was left in a room at a temperature of 46 

 Fah., the other was kept in a place where the temperature was 

 75 Fah. The first was dead after a certain number of hours, the 

 other that was kept warm was generally cured very soon. In cases 

 of poisoning by opium, belladona, tobacco, camphor, alcohol, oxalic 

 acid, and many other poisons, physicians should labor to prevent a 

 diminution of heat by keeping the patient as near as possible, by arti- 

 ficial means, up to the standard of 100 Fah. 



NEW THEORIES IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 



M. Baudrimont, professor of chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences 

 at Bordeaux, has just published a work " On the Existence of Inter- 

 stitial Currents in Arable Soil, and the influence which they exert on 

 Agriculture," in which, after a long study of the subject, he states 

 that there is a natural process at work by which liquid currents rise 

 to the surface from a certain depth in the ground, and thus bring up 

 materials that help either to maintain its fertility or to modify its 

 character. Many phenomena of agriculture and of vegetation have 

 at diiferent times been observed, which, hitherto inexplicable, are 

 readily explained on this theory. Such, for example, the improve- 

 ments which take place in fallows ; and there is reason to believe that 

 these currents materially influence the rotation of crops. 



In Germany, Schleiden is attracting much attention by his masterly 

 views on the phenomena of vegetation ; and it will surprise many to 

 hear that he admits of no relation between the fertility of a soil and 

 the quantity of fertilizing matters expended upon it. " The goodness 

 of the soil," he says, " depends upon its inorganic constituents, so far 

 at least as they are soluble in water, or through continued action of 

 carbonic acid ; and the more abundant and various these solutions, the 

 more fruitful is the ground." Arguing from this view, it is not rich- 

 ness of soil or humus that produces the multiplied varieties of Alpine 

 plants in Germany, or the absence of it that produces but few. " Solu- 

 ble mineral constituents " are shewn to be the characteristic of our 

 cultivated field ; and " an agricultural plant " is defined as one " dis- 

 tinguished from wild individuals of the same species by peculiar quali- 



