POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



141 



has given a list of 165 cases of traumatic 

 epilepsy, 64 per cent of which were cured 

 by trephining. Before Dr. Ferrier's ex- 

 periments this trephining would have had 

 to be done blindly. The knowledge gained 

 by Dr. Ferrier's researches has also been 

 useful in guiding to the spot where pus has 

 accumulated in case of abscesses in the 

 brain, and in indicating the site of tumors. 

 Considering how recently these discoveries 

 have been made, it in fact seems extraordi- 

 nary that they should have been already 

 productive of so much benefit. The opera- 

 tions on the animals are not painful after 

 the exposure of the brain has been accom- 

 plished, and that is done under anaesthetics, 

 nor does any pain follow the recovery from 

 anaesthetic influence. The effects of the 

 after-stimulations are simply the excitement 

 of the wonder and curiosity of the animals 

 at their involuntary motions. Probably a 

 single sportsman inflicts more pain in a 

 day's shooting than Dr. Ferrier has done in 

 the whole course of his researches. 



A Xew Natural Hydrocarbon. Profess- 

 or Henry Carvill Lewis has published a 

 description of a new substance resembling 

 dopplerite which has been found in a peat- 

 bog at Seranton, Pennsylvania. It is black, 

 jelly-like in consistency, and elastic to the 

 touch when first taken from the ground, 

 breaking with a conchoidal fracture, but be- 

 comes tougher and more elastic, like India- 

 rubber, immediately on exposure to the air. 

 Occasional seeds, having the characters of 

 the spores of one of the higher cryptogams, 

 occur in the substance, as well as in the sur- 

 rounding peaty matter. The composition 

 of the substance nearly corresponds with 

 the formula CioH 22 Oi6, differing from that 

 of dopplerite in the presence of much larger 

 proportions of hydrogen and oxygen. Pro- 

 fessor Lewis suggests that this product is, 

 perhaps, an intermediate product between 

 peat and coal, and proposes to combine it 

 with dopplerite under the generic name of 

 phytocollite (" plant-jelly "). 



Parasites. Professor Arnold Heller, of 

 Kiel, has recently published an interesting 

 work on parasites, with particular reference 

 to their import to men. It is only lately 

 that the true origin and character of para- 



sites have been at all adequately understood. 

 Not very long ago they were supposed to be 

 formed out of the substances of the body ; 

 and in the condition of knowledge at the 

 time it was hard to account otherwise for 

 their presence in certain parts of the sys- 

 tem. They have also been supposed to be 

 received by inheritance ; and it has not been 

 fully proved that, in rare instances, this 

 may not be the case. It has, however, been 

 shown that, as a rule, they are introduced 

 into the system, either directly or through 

 germs taken in with the food, breathed in 

 the air, brought by unclean hands or with 

 unclean dishes, or blown in with the dust. 

 They are generally dependent on moisture 

 for their vitality, and, finding in the bodily 

 juices a favorable environment, may be- 

 come suddenly active after having been long 

 dormant in uncongenial situations. Most, if 

 not all of them, probably existed originally 

 in a free state, and have become wonted to 

 what is now an exclusive abode by gradual 

 adaptation in long time ; in such cases, they 

 seem to have lost some of the organs, such 

 as those of locomotion, which they origi- 

 nally possessed, but which have become of 

 no further use to them. Some of them have 

 been made useful to man. The leech serves 

 a valuable purpose in the healing art ; the 

 cochineal aphis furnishes a valuable dye ; 

 the tape-worm of the snipe tickles the pal- 

 ate of the hunter and the epicure as " mac- 

 caroni-piatti " flat maccaroni; and the 

 worms of fresh-water fishes are esteemed as 

 food in some parts of Italy. The ichneu- 

 mon flies and their tribe are of inestimable 

 benefit in destroying the insect enemies to 

 vegetation ; and helpful moths have been 

 discovered which prey upon the moths and 

 other insects in the furs of rodents and the 

 feathers of birds. Among vegetable para- 

 sites, ergot is valuable in medicine, and the 

 mistletoe-berry is used in making bird-lime 

 and fly-paste. It has been suggested that 

 even intestinal worms may be good for 

 children by helping to consume the excess 

 of slime ; and Jordan, of Mayence, has set 

 forth that the animals that infest the skin 

 of man may be beneficial by forcing him to 

 look after the cleanliness of his person and 

 clothing, and his intestinal worms by mak- 

 ing him careful of his food. This view can 

 not, however, be justified, even when we ad- 



