Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 183 



wholesomeness of gelatine, M. Darcet made the following sum- 

 mary. Butchers' meat contains, per 100 lbs., at a medium—- 



Total, . . 100 "' 



Thus, the 15 parts of bones in butchers' meat may furnish 

 6 parts of pure animal substance, and therefore 100 lbs. of 

 meat, which commonly yield but 24 lbs. of alimentary substance, 

 may furnish 30 lbs., if care be taken to extract the whole. It 

 is obvious, therefore, that four head of cattle may supply as 

 much nutriment as is now obtained from five. This is an enor- 

 mous waste ; and to prove the wholesomeness of gelatine, M. 

 Darcet states, that a committee of the faculty of medicine, com- 

 posed of Leroux, Dubois, Pelesten, Dumeril, and Vanquelin, 

 distributed jelly to forty patients, and reported, 1*^, That it was 

 not only a great improvement as an article of diet, but economi- 

 eal, and that to an extent which ought not to be overlooked ; 

 ftd. That soup made with gelatine was at least as agreeable as 

 the ordinary soup of hospitals; 3<i, That gelatine is not only 

 nourishing and easy oi, digestion, but very salutary, and is at^ 

 tended with no impleasant effects on the animal economy. In 

 the hospital of St Louis, there is an apparatus which furnishes 

 900 rations of broth per day. It has been in operation twenty 

 months, and has supplied 550,800 rations of gelatinous solution, 

 and various reports made to the administration testify to its va- 

 kife. ' At the Hotel Dieu 443,650 rations have been supplied, 

 with the same result. These facts M. Darcet thinks ought, at 

 least, to induce the academy to suspend its judgment, before it 

 harbours a sentiment unfavourable to the wholesomeness and 

 economy of gelatine. — Rev. Encyc. Juin 1831. ib 



7. Faraday on the Planar ia. — From Dr Johnson's experi- 



