3G8 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



powerful of known poisons. This alleged discovery was received with con- 

 siderable scepticism, but Vclla, who entered immediately upon a series of 

 thorough experiments, now demonstrates, in a paper communicated to the 

 French Academy of Sciences, the truth of his assertion. A quantity of strych- 

 nine and an equal amount of curarina, either of which would suffice to pro- 

 duce instantaneous death if administered separately, when given to animals, 

 leads to no dangerous results. 



Influence of Cod-Liver Oil and Cocoa-Nut Oil on the Blood. Dr. T. Thomp- 

 son, in a paper read before the Royal Society, states that he found that 

 during the administration of cod-liver oil to phthisical patients their blood 

 grew richer in red corpuscles. The use of almond oil and of olive oil was 

 not followed by any remedial effect; but from cocoa-nut oil results were 

 obtained almost as decided as from the oil of the liver of the cod. The 

 oil in question was a pure cocoa oleine, obtained by pressure from crude 

 cocoa-nut oil, as expressed in Ceylon and the Malabar Coast, from the dried 

 cocoa-nut kernel, and refined by treating with an alkali, and then repeatedly 

 washed with distilled water. 



Phosphorus in the Animal Economy. According to the results obtained by 

 M. Mege-Mouries, organic phosphorus is, not only in the grain of the serials, 

 but also in the egg of animals, the initiative power and the first aliment of 

 the forming embryo. According to this chemist, also, the special group of 

 fatty substances with which this phosphorus is combined in molecules is 

 the special nutriment of the nervous apparatus; hence the acknowledged 

 importance of reducing the amount of phosphorus in medicines to be given 

 to persons under certain nervous conditions. Again, M. Boutigny has pro- 

 posed the employment of phosphate of lime in lymphatic affections, and has 

 compounded an anti-limphatic wine, which contains phosphate of lime in 

 solution. M. Baud now proposes the employment of fatty phosphates 

 extracted from the spinal marrow of the herbivorous mammals for the 

 restoration of the nerves in all cases of nervous weakness. 



Ventilation and Health. In a recent lecture before the Royal Institution, 

 on the relations of town architecture to public health, Dr. Drcwitt stated 

 that close bed-room air was an efficient cause of scrofula and consumption. 

 Thirteen contagious diseases producible at will were enumerated ; and the 

 lecturer stated his belief that in time epidemic diseases will be made subject 

 to human control; and that the surest mode of protecting the dwellings of 

 the rich was to cleanse and ventilate the dwellings of the poor. 



On the Poison Apparatus of the Rattlesnake. At a recent meeting of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, Professor \Vyman gave an account of 

 some dissections which he had recently made of the poison apparatus of the 

 rattlesnake. 



He had not found the connection of the duct and the poison gland to 

 correspond with the descriptions usually given. The duct proper docs not 

 reach the opening at the base of the tooth, but ends at a short distance from 

 it. The communication beyond this is made by means of the sheath of the 

 tooth, which is too loose to prevent the poison from escaping around the 

 exterior of the tooth instead of entering this canal, were it not for the cir- 

 cumstance that, as the tooth is protruded, the sheath is crowded back, and 

 thus made to fit tightly the circumference. 



He had seen a rattlesnake, when held in such a manner as to prevent its 

 striking, discharge the poison in a simple jet to the distance of several 

 inches. He also mentioned the habit which the rattlesnake is known to 



