296 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVEKY. 



pushed backward over a single ridge, and so on indefinitely. An interest- 

 ing point yet to be settled is whether the cuticular caudal rings are 

 set tree at the time of moulting. That there is no definite relation be- 

 tween the age of the animal and the number of rattles, he said, was 

 shown by specimens over six feet long having only two rattles, and 

 others of eighteen inches with six or seven. 



Cause of Death by Drowning. Death in cases of drowning has been 

 attributed to various causes, the introduction of air into the stomach, 

 into the bronchial tubes, closure of the epiglottis, syncope, and asphyxia. 

 M. Beau, of France, believes that the cause of death is asphyxia from 

 want of respirable air ; but that the small quantity of water which en- 

 ters the bronchial tubes requires to be explained. Is it that, in drown- 

 ing, there is an arrest of the respiratory movements ? To the solution 

 of this question, M. Beau has applied himself, and has endeavored to 

 show by experiments, that death takes place in drowning from an irre- 

 sistible horror of the water inducing an arrest of the movements of res- 

 piration and closure of the respiratory orifices ; and that this takes 

 place irrespectively of the actual introduction of a small quantity of 

 water into the air-tubes at the moment of submersion. There is, then, 

 in the words of M. Beau, a hydrophobia of inspiration in the drowning 

 analogous to the hydrophobia of deglutition in persons bitten by rabid 

 animals. The last class of experiments show that death in these 

 cases is comparable to that which arises from strangulation. 



M. Flourens on Respiration. In a warm-blooded vertebrate ani- 

 mal, respiratory movements are instantly arrested if the medulla ob- 

 longata is divided " in the centre of the Y of the gray matter," and the 

 creature dies immediately. In a frog, pulmonary respiration ceases on 

 making a similar division, but the animal continues to live through its 

 cutaneous respiration. The respiration of a fish ceases if the medulla 

 oblongata is divided by a section which passes just behind the cerebel- 

 lum, and the animal dies more or less quickly, according to the species. 

 M. Flourens observes, " The lobes, or cerebral hemispheres, minister 

 to intelligence, and that only ; the cerebellum is devoted to the coordi- 

 nation of the movements of locomotion, and there is a point in the 

 medulla oblongata which presides over the movements of respiration, " 



PLASTICITY OF BLOOD CORPUSCLES. 



Dr. Sharpy says, " The plasticity of the blood corpuscle is unrivalled 

 by any other physical body. It will assume all sorts of protean shapes 

 under the slightest influences. Elongating to a mere thread, it will 

 pass through a narrow chink ; it will wrap itself round an acute, pro- 

 jecting angle, or protrude feelers and tails under the influence of cur- 

 rents. In its natural state, it possesses sufficient elasticity to resume 

 its original shape on the cessation of the modifying influences ; but when 

 gum or gelatine has been added, or when the plasma has been per- 

 mitted to thicken spontaneously, the corpuscle retains any form it may 

 have assumed till again altered by fresh influence." Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society, No. 52. 



FERTILITY OF FISH. 



Mr. Frank Buckland, of England, who has given much attention to 

 the artificial culture of fish, has recently ascertained the amount of 



