468 National Institute of the United States. 



solution of bichloride of copper with chloride of sodium, is explained 

 by Sonneschmidt, Humboldt, and Boussingault, on the supposition 

 that a chloride of silver is formed at the same time that the sulphur 

 combines with the copper. The author calls in question the truth 

 of this theory, and proposes certain modifications of the process by 

 the employment of a combination of deutoxide of copper with the 

 bichloride, until an oxy-chloride is formed, and then adding finely 

 precipitated copper, by which a salt of a brick-red colour is ob- 

 tained, insoluble in water, and at a temperature of 200° Fahr. 

 speedily reducing sulphuret of silver to the metallic state. 



3. " Experimental evidence in support of the secretion of Carbon 

 by animals." By Robert Rigg, Esq., F.R.S. 



The author finds that the mean of the results of different experi- 

 mentalists as to the quantity of carbon excreted by respiration from 

 adults, during twenty-four hours, is 5963 grains ; whereas the 

 weight of the carbon contained in the whole of the food, both solid 

 and liquid, received into the body during the same period, as ascer- 

 tained by the analysis of each article of diet, made by the author, 

 falls very short of that quantity ; varying in different cases from 

 3002 to 4800 grains. The same inference is drawn from experi- 

 ments made on a mouse, weighing 181 grains, confined in a wire 

 trap for twenty-eight days ; during which time it consumed food 

 containing 544'5 grains of carbon, and gave out, in the respired air, 

 741*2 grains of carbon, being 196*7 grains more than it had re- 

 ceived ; and it had also gained in absolute weight 27 grains. The 

 conclusion which the author deduces from these experiments is, that 

 carbon is actually formed, or secreted by animals. 



May 9 — " On the Hyssop of Scripture." By J. F. Royle, M.D., 

 F.R.S., &c. 



Many attempts have at different times been made, by various 

 authors, to identify the plant which, in our authorized version of the 

 Scriptures, is translated Hyssop. The author enters at large into 

 the history of the speculations of former writers on this subject ; 

 and after an elaborate investigation, is led to the conclusion that this 

 plant is the Capparis spinosa of Linnaeus, or Caper plant, a shrub 

 abundantly met with in the south of Europe, where it appears to be 

 indigenous, and also generally on the islands and coasts of the 

 Mediterranean, as well as in Lower Egypt and in Syria. 



NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The first annual meeting of this Institute was held in Washington 

 during the first week in April, and was very numerously attended by 

 scientific men from all parts of the United States. 



The establishment of these annual meetings in America will be 

 attended, we doubt not, with the happiest results. A year ago the 

 American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia held its centennial 

 celebration, a hundred years having elapsed since it was founded by 

 Franklin. Up to that time it was generally feared that any attempt to 

 bring together scientific men would not be successful, partly owing to 

 the remoteness of their residences, but mainly to that peculiar dispo- 



