194 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



A solution of potash, similarly diluted, produced the same 

 effect. 



The roots of bean plants were placed in a solution of twelve 

 grains of sulphate of magnesia in two ounces of water. No effects 

 were produced at the end of twenty-four hours, and twelve grains 

 more of the salt were added ; at the end of forty-eight hours, 

 other twelve grains were added, making thirty- six grains in two 

 ounces of water ; and yet the plants prospered. The object here 

 was to ascertain whether mineral substances, not injurious to ani- 

 mals, were also innocuous to vegetables. The same results were 

 obtained with common salt. 



Vegetable Poisons. In these experiments the bean plants were 

 carefully taken from the earth, and their roots immersed in the 

 solutions used. It was ascertained that plants, so withdrawn and 

 placed in water, would remain in excellent health for six or 

 eight days, and continue to vegetate as if in the earth. As some 

 of the poisons used rendered the water in which they were dis- 

 solved viscid, a comparative experiment was made in water con- 

 taining enough gum to make it more viscid than any of the solu- 

 tions used ; the beans thus treated remained fresh and healthy for 

 five or six days. Further, all the infusions and solutions used 

 were filtered. 



Opium. — (10th May.) The roots of a bean were placed in a 

 solution of from five to six grains of opium in one ounce of water. 

 In the evening the leaves had drooped, and by the middle of the 

 next day the plant was dead beyond recovery. Extract of night- 

 shade produced a similar effect, but more slowly. 



Nux Vomica. — (May 9.) The bean plant used was put into a 

 solution of five grains of the extract in one ounce of water at nine 

 o'clock ; at ten o'clock the plant seemed unhealthy; at one o'clock 

 all the petioles were bent at the middle, as if broken ; in the even- 

 ing the plant was dead. Another plant, taken from the earth at 

 the same time, and left without water, began also to fade in three 

 or four hours ; but the leaves only gave way in that time, and not 

 the petioles. 



A slit being made (July 15) to the centre of the stem of a lilac, 

 nearly an inch in diameter, about fifteen grains of moistened ex- 

 tract were introduced, and the wound closed up. On the 28th, 

 the leaves of the two largest branches nearest to the wound began 

 to dry ; and on the 3d of August they were quite dry. The other 

 leaves became dry in the course of the autumn. 



Opium and the nux vomica produce death in animals, according 

 to M. Orfila, by acting on the nervous system. Opium appears 

 to act upon the brain, and the vomica nut upon the spinal 

 marrow. 



Seeds of the Coculus Menispermis. — Ten grains of the extract of 

 these seeds were dissolved in two ounces of water. A few mo- 



