628 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



alkaline-aqueous solutions by chloroform, are given up again 

 upon agitating it several times with acidified water, while 

 the fats and other foreign matters are retained. A systematic 

 plan for the detection of these vegetable poisons, based upon 

 the above facts, was tested by mixing weighed quantities 

 of them with suitably selected portions of a human subject. 

 In many cases the whole of the poisonous matter was recov- 

 ered, in most cases the greater part ; and it was a peculiarly 

 satisfactory feature of the process that the substances were 

 obtained from the chloroform in such a state of purity that 

 immediate tests for their identification could be made. 14 

 (7, 1872,CCVI.,422. 



NICOTINE IN TOBACCO SMOKE. 



Experiments, by Dr. Heubel, do not confirm the alleged ab- 

 sence of nicotine from tobacco smoke ; on the contrary, by 

 condensing smoke from cigars, and washing it in water and 

 alcohol, he obtained a solution which was capable of produc- 

 ing the effects of nicotine ; and he also detected its presence, 

 chemically, in the form of the salts more permanent at high 

 temperatures. The injurious effect of smoking, he concludes, 

 must therefore be ascribed, in j^art, at least, to the absorp- 

 tion of nicotine, though other substances may act with this 

 poison. 13 C, December 15, 1872, 1630. 



BKEANT PKIZE FOR 1872. 



The Breant Prize has been adjudged to M. Chauveau by 

 the Academy of Sciences of Paris for his researches upon 

 virus and virulent maladies. This gentleman has, for many 

 years, been engaged in experiments upon the subject, and has 

 already reached results of very great scientific and practical 

 importance. In his investigations upon vaccine virus, he Avas 

 able to strain out certain granulations from the serosity 

 forming the contents of the vaccine pustule ; and he ascer- 

 tained that the liquid itself was inert, and that the action is 

 due entirely to the solid granulations. 



Again, when water was added, these granulations were 

 found to settle at the bottom, leavinq; an inactive laver above: 

 but when the liquid Avas disturbed, and these granulations 

 stirred about, the vaccine properties were imj^arted to the 

 whole mass. He thus found that the virus diluted with fifty 



