202 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



of the ground, assisted by certain protecting hedges, will enable the 

 carbonic acid to collect in large quantities. A cistern is to be 

 formed at the lowest level, and then when animals come to drink the 

 water, or are tempted by the green shade, they will be killed, and 

 thus much game is calculated upon for the advantage of the village. 

 Then a house is to be built with an inclined floor, a pully, a double 

 rope, &C M so that a dog may be tied to the rope, led into the car- 

 bonic acid atmosphere in the house, rendered insensible, hauled up 

 again and revived by the fresh air ; and thus by making the celebrated 

 experiment of the Grotto del Cane in a scientific way, much com- 

 pany, it is expected, will be drawn to the place* 



2. ON THE PHENOMENON OP BLUSHING. 



M. E. A. Lauth observes, that he is not aware that any precise in- 

 formation has been afforded as to the kind of vessels which produce 

 the colour of the face. Most physiologists merely say that it depends 

 upon the capillaries. M. Lauth states, that if the arteries are suc- 

 cessfully injected, the whole of the face becomes of an uniform red 

 tint. It cannot, therefore, be these vessels which produce the phe- 

 nomenon of blushing. He has derived the following results from a 

 perfect injection of the facial veins: the cheeks were deeply 

 coloured, the chin, the tip of the nose and the forehead obtained 

 a slighter tint, and the other parts of the face were still less coloured. 

 This kind of colouration resembles that which is produced by men- 

 tal emotions during life, and we may therefore conclude that blush- 

 ing depends in part upon venous congestion f. 



3. GENERAL EMPHYSEMA FORMED BY A COMBUSTIBLE GAS. 



This singular case was described by M. Bally, at the Academic 

 Royale de Medecine. A man twenty-five years of age, who had been 

 ill fifteen days, was admitted into L'Hopital Cochin, with symp 

 toms of typhus fever. He also complained of severe pain in the 

 left thigh, and whilst he was in a state of delirium, he said he had 

 been bitten on the knee by a dog. The limb was most attentively 

 examined, but not the slightest trace of such an accident could be 

 discovered. The thigh and scrotum were much swollen. He died 

 the following day. Dissection eight hours after death. The surface 

 of the body was soiled by blood, which had also transuded through 

 the integuments of the thighs : some blood had also been dis- 

 charged from the nose. The whole body was emphysematous, but 

 the left inferior extremity was in this state to a very high degree ; 

 it was double its natural size, of a brown colour, and covered with 

 numerous phlyctenaB, some black, of great extent and collected in 

 clusters, from which escaped a reddish serous fluid, mingled with a 

 quantity of gas ; others were white, and from these nothing but air 

 escaped. 



* Recueil Industrie!, xv. 220. f Mem. de la Society &c. de Strasbourg. 



