294 ANKUAL OF SCIEXTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



slightly acidulated with acetic acid, and at a temperature of blood 

 heat, or of 98° to 100° and after several liours, a mass of librin 

 appears, the prodiielion of which is facilitated by bringing into 

 play tlie action of an electric current. If, instead of an acid solu- 

 tion of albumen, Mr. Smee employed a weak alkaline solution of 

 the same substance, it became transformed iuto a peculiar sub- 

 stance, known under the name of chondrin. 



THE RAPIDITY OF ABSORPTION. BY DR. H. BENCE JONES. 



It occniTed to the author that it might be possible to trace the 

 passage of snbst;inces from the blood into the textures of the body 

 by means of the spectrum analysis ; and, with the assistance of Dr. 

 Dupre some very remarkable results liave been obtained. 



(;iiinea-j)igs have ciiielly Ix'cn used for the experiments. Usu- 

 ally, no litliium can l)e fonml in any part of their bodies. When 

 half a grain of chloride of lithium was given to a guinea-pig for 

 three successive days, lithium appeared inevery tissue of the body. 

 Even in the non-vascular textures, as the cartilages, the cornea, 

 the crystallint! Ims, lithium would be found. 



Two animals of the same size and age were taken ; to one was 

 given three grains of chloride of lithium, and it was killed in eiglit 

 hours ; another had no lithium ; it was also killed, and when the 

 whole lens was Ijurnt at once, no trace of lithium could be found. 

 In the other, which had taken lithium, a piece of the lens, one- 

 twentieth of a pin's head in size, showed the lithium ; it had 

 penetrated to the centre of the lens. 



A jiatient who was suffering from diseased heart took fifteen 

 grains of citrate of litiiia thirty-six hours before her death, and 

 the same quantity six hours before her death. The crystalline 

 lens, the blood, and the cartilage of one joint were examined for 

 lithium; in the cartilage it was found very distinctly; in the 

 blood exceedingly faintl}- ; and when 'the outer lens was taken, 

 the iaintest possible indications of lithium were obtained. 



Another patient took ten grains of carljonate of lithia five hours 

 and a half before death ; the lens showed very faint traces of 

 lithium when half the substance was taken for one examination ; 

 the cartilage showed lithium very distinctly. 



Dr. Jones expects to be be able to find lithium in the lens after 

 operation for cataract, and in the umbilical cord after the birth of 

 the foetus. 



APPEARANCES OF GOOD AND BAD MEAT, 



Dr Letheby, in a report on the cattle plague, gives the following 

 characters of good and bad meat, which ai-e especially interesting : 

 " Good meat is neither of a pale jjinkish color, nor of a deep 

 purple tint. The former is indicative of disease, and the latter is 

 a sign that the animal has died from natural causes. Good meat 

 has also a marbled appearance from the ramifications of little 

 veins of intercellular fat ; and the fat, especially of the internal 

 organs, is hard and suet}', and is never wet ; whereas that of the 



