Scientific Intelligence — Anthropology. 385 



in a larger quantity to the arterial system, and especially te 

 the brain. The imagination becomes active, the thoughts are 

 accompanied with a peculiar charm, and some persons are affect- 

 ed with symptoms of intoxication. The power of the muscular 

 system is increased. The weight of the body appears to diminish. 

 When a person is placed' in a receiver, and the pressure of 

 the air is diminished one-fourth, the membrane of the tympanum 

 is momentarily distended ; the respiration is inconvenienced, the 

 inspirations are short and frequent, and in about fifteen or 

 twenty minutes there is a true dyspnoea. The pulse is full, 

 compressible and frequent ; the superficial vessels are turgid. 

 The eyelids and lips are distended with superabundant fluids, 

 and hemorrhage and tendency to syncope are sometimes in- 

 duced ; the skin is inconveniently hot, and its functions increased 

 in activity ; the salivary and renal glands secrete their fluids 

 less abundantly. — Land, and Edin, Phil. Journ,^ August 1836. 



22. Manner of obtaining Blood in cases where the Vein does 

 not yield it readily ; by Dr Burdach.-^The plan is applicable 

 to all cases where open veins do not give a sufficient quantity 

 of blood, or in bleeding fat persons where the veins are not very 

 apparent. To produce the effect, says M. Burdach, it is mere- 

 ly sufficient to apply a ligature also on the other arm, as is 

 you were about to open a vein in it. After an interval of from 

 two to ten minutes, the vessels of both arms will be swollen and 

 full of blood. As soon as the person feels numbness, the liga- 

 ture is to be relaxed, and compression made with the thumb, 

 that the blood of the open vein may flow in a jet ; the flow of 

 blood is to be kept up or stopped by tightening or relaxing both 

 ligatures. — Grafe et Walther Journal der Chi?'urgi€. Dublin 

 Medical Journal. 



23. Poisoning by Arsenic curedby the Hydrated Tritoxide of 

 /ro7i.— A remarkable case of this description is recorded in the 

 Gaz. Med. de Paris (22d August 1835) by M. Monod. The 

 subject of it was a hair-dresser, thirty-five years of age, who, in 

 a paroxysm of delirium tremens, swallowed a drachm and a half 

 of white oxide of arsenic. Half an hour afterwards the antidote 

 was given to him, suspended in water, and he drank in twelve 

 hours all the tritoxide produced by the decomposition of five 

 ounces five drachms of the trito-sulphate of iron. He had no 



