Experiments on the Oxides and Salts of Chrome. 159 



and he is further of opinion, that the dry. rot, so injurious and 

 even destructive to buildings, may by means of it be wholly 

 prevented or removed. 



As to his physiological experiments connected with this 

 agent, Professor Jacobson has communicated but this principal 

 result, that chrome is one of those metals which in a particular 

 manner acts on the nervous system, and that its topical action is 

 partly resolvent, partly corrosive, though in a manner different 

 from that of the action of the other metallic salts. The chrome 

 salts are calculated, therefore, to become highly important as 

 medicaments. 



Professor Jacobson has tried them with success in the treat- 

 ment of various sorts of ulcers, which application of them he 

 has promised to make the subject of a future communication to 

 the society. 



ON THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF DIFFERENT SOLID PARTS OF THE 

 HUMAN BODY. 



Our attention has lately been directed to this subject, from 

 receiving an inaugural dissertation by Dr Joseph Frick, pub- 

 lished at Freiburg in the Breisgau, in 1832, in which a consider- 

 able number of original experiments are related. 



Experiments of this kind, in order that they ma}^ be consi- 

 dered worthy of credit, must be performed upon a very great 

 number of different bodies, as soon as possible after death, and 

 as much as possible in a similar and healthy condition of the or- 

 gans ; for it is obvious that putrefaction, for a very few hours, 

 diseased alteration of any kind, and even a greater or less quan- 

 tity of fluids, or of fat, in the healthy state, must cause a very 

 considerable variation in the relative weights of the organs. 



The specific gravity of a few parts of the body has been men- 

 tioned by Soemmering and Meckel, their information being pro- 

 bably derived from Musschenbroek. Some of the numbers as- 

 signed by these authorities are quoted by Dr Frick ; but this 

 author seems not to have known of the researches of Dr John 

 Davy " On the Specific gravity of different parts of the Human 

 Body,'' which appeared in 1829, in the 3d volume of the 



