348 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ly dark and light, stripes and plaids are formed, each bar of color being 

 about an inch and a quarter wide. New York Tribune. 



SINGULAR DISCOVERY IX THE PRODUCTION OF SILK. 



It has long been known to physiologists that certain coloring matters, 

 if administered to animals along with their food, possessed the pro- 

 perty of entering into the system and tinging the bones. In this way 

 the bones of swine have been tinged purple by madder, and instances 

 are on record of other animals being similarly affected. No attempt 

 was made to turn this discovery to account until lately, when Mons. 

 Roulin speculated on what might be the consequences of administering 

 colored food to silkworms just before spinning their cocoons. His first 

 experiments were conducted with indigo, which he mixed in certain 

 proportions with the mulberry-leaves serving the worms for food. The 

 result of this treatment was successful he obtained blue cocoons. 

 Prosecuting still further his experiments, he sought a red coloring 

 matter, capable of being eaten by the silkworms without injury. He 

 had some difficulty to find such a coloring matter at first, but eventu- 

 ally alighted on the Bignomia cliica. Small portions of this plant 

 having been added to the mulberry-leaves, the silkworms consumed the 

 mixture, and produced red-colored silk. In this manner the experi- 

 mentalist, who is still prosecuting his researches, hopes to obtain silk, 

 secreted by the worm, of many other colors. 



New Varieties of Silk. At a late meeting of the Royal Society, 

 Endand, 5 Mr. Westwood exhibited a new kind of silk in different stages 



o ' o 



of manufacture, and the fabric produced from it by the natives of 

 tropical Africa, where it was produced. The raw material consisted of 

 a mass of the cocoons of a moth, probably one of the Tineidse, closely 

 packed together, and in consequence it required to be carded before 

 being spun. Some manufacturers who had seen it, thought it might 

 be advantageously worked, if a supply could be procured. 



PRODUCTION OF GANGRENE. 



A communication has been recently presented to the French Aca- 

 demy, by Dr. Maisonneuve, on instantaneous gangrene, (gangrene 

 foudroyante^) with the development and circulation of putrid gases in 

 the veins (pneumo-Jiemi putride). This gangrene commonly sets in 

 after fractures which are complicated with wounds, and especially 

 when the wounding cause has, by the violence of its action, produced 

 a profound disorganization of the tissues, or when considerable effusions 

 of blood infi Itered into the soft parts, are placed in direct communica- 

 tion with the exterior air; then the blood forced from its vessels, or 

 from the tissues crushed by the contusion, having no longer in them- 

 selves the organic conditions necessary for life, putrify under the in- 

 fluence of air and humidity ; their prompt decomposition engenders 

 putrid gases which infiltrate in the cellular interstices, and their dele- 

 terious contact extinguishes the vital forces, in the parts already stupi- 



