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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



quently he was stung thrice, and the pain 

 was considerably less, though the sweUing 

 was still extensive. At the end of the next 

 week he had had eighteen stings, and by 

 the close of the third week thirty-two stings. 

 After the twentieth sting there was very ht- 

 tle swelling or pain, only a slight itching 

 sensation, with a small amount of inflam- 

 mation in the immediate neighborhood of 

 the part stung, which did not spread farther. 



Iiiflaence of Cobra-Poison on Ciliary Ae- 

 tion. lu the MoniMy Microscopical Journal 

 for June is given a record of experiments 

 made by Drs. Brunton and Fayrer upon the 

 influence of cobra-poison on ciliary action. 

 Ciliated epithelium from a frog's mouth was 

 treated with a solution of the poison, and 

 examined under the microscope. The cilia 

 were then in vigorous action. Ten minutes 

 later this action was much diminished, and 

 in twenty minutes it had ceased. Again, 

 ciliated epithelium was placed under the 

 microscope, one part being ti'eated with 

 water and the other with the poisoned so- 

 lution. Ciliary action was at first vigorous 

 in both, perhaps more so in that subjected 

 to the poisoned solution. ' Eight minutes 

 later, non-poisoned cilia still active, poi- 

 soned cilia very feeble. Ten minutes, non- 

 poisoned cilia still active, poisoned very fee- 

 ble. Fourteen minutes, non-poisoned cilia 

 still active, poisoned cilia very languid. 

 Twenty minutes, non-poisoned cilia still ac- 

 tive, poisoned cilia perfectly inactive. From 

 this it is evident that the poison first stim- 

 ulates and then destroys the activity of the 

 cilia. 



The action of the poison on vegetable 

 protoplasm is very different. This subject 

 was investigated by Mr. Darwin, who tested 

 the action of cobra-poison on Drosera. A 

 minute drop of the solution (one-quarter 

 grain to two ounces water) acted powerfully 

 on several glands of the drosera-leaf more 

 powerfully than fresh poison from an ad- 

 der's fang. Oil immersing three leaves in 

 ninety minims of the solution, the tentacles 

 soon became inflated and the glands quite 

 white, as by the action of boiling water. 

 The leaves appeared to be killed, yet after 

 eight hours' immersion they were placed in 

 water, and after about forty-eight hours re- 

 expanded. Having immersed a leaf in the 



solution for forty-eight hours, Mr. Darwin 

 found that the protoplasm was then inces- 

 santly changing form, being unusually ac- 

 tive. " Hence," says he, " I cannot doubt 

 that this poison is a stimulant to the proto- 

 plasm" of plants. 



Copper-poisoned Pastnres. It was ob- 

 served by the late Prof. Buckland, the geol- 

 ogist, that the bones of cattle pastured in 

 the vicinity of copper-works became dis- 

 eased. This observation has been confirmed 

 by his son, Frank Buckland, who has exam- 

 ined the skull of a cow, which had for three 

 years grazed the copper-smoked grass. He 

 describes the substance of the bone as much 

 thickened and enlarged. Instead of the usu- 

 al ivory-like smooth appearance of healthy 

 bone, it appears to be eaten into minute 

 pits. The lower jaw presents several hard, 

 osseous excrescences, and the general ap- 

 pearance closely resembles that of bones 

 affected by mercurial poisoning, one of the 

 symptoms of which is a superficial deposit 

 of rough, porous bone. Whether the min- 

 eral deposited on the grass in the vicin- 

 ity of copper-works, and which is eaten by 

 cattle, and subsequently absorbed into their 

 system, be copper or arsenic, or arsenite 

 of copper, Mr. Buckland is unable to deter- 

 mine at present, but he intends to have the 

 substance analyzed by a competent chem- 

 ist. The symptoms of the poisoning arc 

 stated as follows by a correspondent of Mr. 

 Buckland : First, the beast appears dull, 

 and its hair is dry ; the eyes water, and the 

 belly becomes tucked up ; soon the beast 

 shows signs of being in pain when moved ; 

 hard lumps rise on the legs and on the ribs ; 

 the bones of the head become enlarged, and 

 the eyes appear sunken ; the teeth become 

 black and worn ; lameness appears, some- 

 times in one leg only, at other times in all 

 the limbs ; in milch-cows the milk dries up. 



Sensitiveness of Silver-Salts to Light. 

 In the Ai7ierira7i Journal of Science, for 

 April, M. Carey Lea has a paper on " The 

 Action of the Less Refrangible Rays of Light 

 on Silver Iodide and Silver Bromide," in 

 which the following propositions are main- 

 tained, viz. : 1. That these two salts of sil- 

 ver are sensitive to all the visible rays of 

 the spectrum ; 2. That silver iodide is more 



