172 Miscellaneous Intelligence, 



acid is the second essential condition to digestion in vertebrated 

 animals ; without it no globules of chyle would be formed. In order 

 to ascertain the part of the stomach by which the acid was secreted, 

 that organ taken from a rabbit was emptied, washed several times 

 with solution of soda, and then a cloth introduced, coloured by a 

 vegetable blue colour ; after six hours it was reddened principally 

 near the middle region of the stomach, and several repetitions of 

 the experiment gave the same result. Similar means indicated 

 the same result with regard to the stomach of the sheep, &c. 



The conclusions arrived at by the authors of the memoir are, 

 that 1 . The changes occasioned by digestion are purely chemical, 

 and are not influenced by the vitality of the organs in which they 

 take place ; they may all of them, with the exception of those pro- 

 duced in the absorbent vessels, be imitated artificially by means of 

 the fluids furnished by the secretory organs, namely, the soda 

 and acid. 



2. The soda is the agent to which the gastric juice owes those 

 dissolvent properties which so much astonished Spallanzani. 



3. The albuminous globules which, by their re-union form the 

 chyme, are precipitated by the muriatic acid : this is a secretion of 

 the fourth stomach in ruminating animals, and of the middle re- 

 gion of the stomach in vertebrated animals, in which this viscus 

 is not subdivided.' — Bib. Univ. xxvii. 229. 



7. White and Household Bread. — Dr. Magendie tried the ex- 

 periment of feeding dogs upon white bread and water, but all the 

 animals died within 50 days, whilst those to whom he had given 

 household bread, (pain de munition,) which only differed from the 

 white bread by retaining a quantity of the bran, continued to 

 thrive very well upon it. It is remarkable that one of the dogs 

 that died, had been put upon his usual nourishment between 

 the 40th and 45th days, but nothing could save him from the fatal 

 effects of white bread. — New Mon. Mag. xv. 115. 



8. Properties of Margosa Oil. — Mr. Allsop, in a letter from 

 Madras, describes the oil obtained by expression from the nut or 

 seed of the margosa-tree as having valuable medicinal properties, 

 and acting as a preservative of perishable substances of various 

 kinds. About \^ ounce of the oil is obtained from a pound of the 

 nuts. It~ (and also the leaf of the tree) is applied externally for 

 pains in the joints, swellings, stings or bites of insects, S^c.-, and is 

 a chief ingredient in the decoctions of the natives for flatulency, 

 indigestion, S^c. Mr. Allsop was himself relieved from a very 

 severe attack of lumbago by three applications of the oil. 



The natives besmear their holays or cadjares^ on which their 

 vedas, histories, Sfc, are written, with it. Some, upwards of two 

 centuries and a half old, were nearly as fresh and in as good cpn?» 



