300 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



M Goujonlias also demonstrated in his prize essay r'*Comptes 

 Rcndus," June 14, 1869), by experiments onrabbitsand eliickens, 

 tiuit portions of the marrow inserted among the muscles become 

 united to the surrounding tissues, and, like the periosteum, pos- 

 sess the property of reproducing bony matter. This tissue 

 plays an important part also in the formaiion of callus. 



The Ovarian Egg. — In 18G4 M. Balbiani showed that the ova- 

 rian Qg^ contains, beside the vesicle of Purkinje, a second vesicle, 

 which also concurs in the Ibrmation of the embiyo. M. Gerbe, 

 in a prize essay for 1868, has demonstrated tliat, in the primitive 

 ovule of the Sacculhia^ an animal parasite on marine crustaceans, 

 both these vesicles coexist before any other element is developed 

 in it. In following the evolution to complete development he 

 found that one of the vesicles became gradually surrounded by 

 molecular granulations destined to form a cicatricula analogous 

 to that of the eg^r of most ovipara, while the other was surround- 

 ed by materials for the nourishment of the embryo, or the ele- 

 ments analogous to the yolk. This discovery proves that the ves- 

 icle pointed out by Purkinje in birds, in 1825, is really, in the egg 

 of such species as have a cicatricula, the centre of its formation, 

 that is, of the germ. Science thus, by direct observation, ascends 

 even to the sources of life. — Comptes Jieiidus, June 14, 1869. 



Inoculability of Tubercle. — The experiments of M. Villemin 

 show conclusively that tuberculosis may be produced in certain 

 animals by the insertion under the skin of tuberculous 

 matter from man or any infected animal ; a similar effect fol- 

 lows the introduction beneath the skin of the sputa in this dis- 

 ease ; and recently it has been shown that the dried and pow- 

 dered sputa mixed with food will introduce the tubercle tluough 

 the intestines, and consequenth- produce a general tuberculosis. 

 From the fact of inoculation follows that of its specific virulence, 

 and from the latter its contagiousness j inoculal)le trom man to 

 animals, it is doubtless so from man to man. Tlie particular 

 conditions of cohabitation which will render this disease trans- 

 missible form an important subject for future investigation. — 

 Comptes Rejidus, June 14, 1869. 



Cholesterine. — According to the researches of Dr. Austin Flint, 

 cholesterine is an excrementitious product, formed in great part 

 from the brain and nerves, absorbed by the blood, separated from 

 it by the liver, entering into the composition of the bile, to which 

 it gives its excrementitious character, poured with the bile into 

 the small intestine, where the act of digestion changes it into 

 stercorine or seroline of Ijoudet, tinder wliiehform it is evacuated 

 with the faeces. Its retention in the blood constitutes a grave dis- 

 ease, called by him "cholesteremia," in which this substance acts 

 like a poison, bringing on coma and death, as in uroemic poison- 

 ing. It is a disease wholly distinct from jaundice, though the 

 two may coexist. — Comptes liendus, June, 1869. 



Poison of Batrachi^ans. — A tree-frog of New Granada, Phyl- 

 lobatrs mdanorhinuH? or the roja, of a reddish color, shaded with 

 Naples yellow, and som<'times black undi-rneath, secretes a poison 

 from the dorsal region, of the greatest activity when collected at 



