BEPOKT'oF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 307 



as to provide for combustion for twelve hours. This stove was surrounded by- 

 eight nests, each containing twenty-four eggs. 



At first M. Le Baun Seguir found that the eggs did not receive the 

 humidity from his apparatus which they would have had from the mother, 

 but he entirely met the difficulty by constantly sprinkling water in the apart- 

 ments where the apparatus was fixed, and then the young came out of the 

 eggs perfectly developed. [This precaution has also been found necessary in 

 hatching the eggs of silkworms, and our entomologists will recognise the 

 principle in the treatment of their cocoons.] 



M. Leon Soubeiran read a paper upon his "Researches into the Structure 

 of the Venomous Apparatus of Vipers." The venom is Gland composites, 

 like a bunch of grapes. The acini are very distinctly seen dispersed regularly 

 along the excretory canals, like the beard of a feather on the two sides of 

 its stalk, or like the folioles of a pennated leaf. The lobules forming the 

 gland are from 'six to eight. Towards the middle part of the excretory 

 canal, a little below the inferior edge of the orbit, is an ovoid swelling, 

 which appears to be a sort of reservoir of the venom. This swelling is 

 very visible to the naked eye. It varies much in size, according to that of 

 the individual and the liquid it contains. Under the microscope it is 

 observed to be surrounded by a number of simple follicules, which all ter- 

 minate in a single mouth in the cavity of this swelling, {reufiement,) and 

 form a special apparatus not hitherto described. 



M. L. Soubeiran thinks that the venom is secreted as the animal requires 

 it, (and not contained, as supposed in a special reservoir,) just as the saliva 

 is augmented in secretion during eating. If the liquid secreted does not 

 flow continually by the fang-canal, then it must be that the fang, doubling 

 itself back along the maxillary palate bone, makes a fold in the direction of 

 the conduit, and so closes up the canal by pressing its sides together. 

 When, on the contrary, the fang is unfolded, the fold disappears, and 

 there is then no longer any obstacle to the flow of the venom. 



Sitting, September 20th., 1858. 



M. Ciceone read a paper on the "Researches into the Maladies of Silk- 

 worms," which was corroborative of much that has been previously advanced 

 by M. Guerin-Meneville, and opposed to those of M. O. Quatrefages, on the 

 nature of the spots which are the result of gatline. 



[This subject is one just now of intense interest in France, in consequence 

 of the magnitude of the interest dependent upon it.] 



Sitting, September 27th., 1858. 



M. Vannee read a paper upon the "Forces which concur in determining 

 the circulation of the blood." These forces, M. Vanner says, are: — 1. — A 

 force primitive and unknown, which we find in the egg before the formation 

 of the heart. 2. — The contractive action of the heart on the blood and 

 arteries. 3. — A general compression, which acts in a sense contrary on the 

 blood in the capillaries and veins. 



The- rest of the sitting was occupied in deciding a question of literary 

 priority, of no interest to our readers. C. K. B. 



