BIOLOGY. 301 



the time of secretion bv the livino;- animal. Under the influence of 

 acute pain tlie upper portion of the body becomes covered with 

 a white, milk3% viscid liquid; this is the poison, in vvhieh the na- 

 tives quickly dip the ends of their arrows. The poison is suffi- 

 cient to kill animals as large as the jaguar, and also man. Experi- 

 ments on animals show that, as in curare, the poison acts upon 

 the organs of motion, and not on those of sensation. — Comptes 

 Rendus, June, 1869. 



Influence of Trades on Cholera. — Extensive statistical researches 

 have shown that among 37,000 workmen in copper, there were 

 only 29 cases of cholera, or one in 1,270; among 28.000 workers 

 on iron and steel, 202 cases, or one in 209 ; among 7,500 work- 

 men on other metals, 42 cases, or one in 278. — Comptes Rendus, 

 Sept. 27, 1869. 



Fihrine. — MM. Bechamp and Estor announced to the French 

 Academy, in February, 1869, that numerous experiments had led 

 them to tiie conclusion that what is called the fibiine of the blood 

 is only a false membrane formed by the microzymas or molecular 

 granulations of the blood, associated by a substance which they 

 secrete with the aid of the albuminoid elements of this fluid. — 

 Comptes Rendus, Sept. 20, 1869. 



Occasional Cause of Sudden Death. — According to M. Bert, 

 (" Comptes Rendus," Aug. 23, 1869), violent excitation of the pneu- 

 mogastric nerve, and its laryngeal branches, may cause sudden 

 death, without convulsions ; respiration and the general move- 

 ments of the body are immediately arrested, and the animal dies 

 as if killed by lightning. He thus caused death in mammals and 

 birds, especially in ducks; the latter is an important fact, as the 

 suddenness of the death proves that it is not due to asphyxia, 

 these animals resisting asphyxia from 8 to 15 minutes. The death 

 is doubtless due to the immediate cessation of action, from too 

 great peripheral excitation of the respiratory tract of the medulla, 

 often called the "vital knot" (rioeud vital). However it be ex- 

 plained, certain cases of sudden death after violent excitation of 

 the larynx (as ammoniacal cauterization, small foreign bodies, 

 etc.), and after certain attacks of so-called angina pectoris, may 

 perhaps be thus accounted for. 



Origin of Bacteriums. — According toM. Bechamp, these organ- 

 isms may develop themselves and remain equally well in an acid, 

 alkaline, or neutral menstruum. The normal microzymas of 

 plants and of animals may develop into bacteriums; and many 

 forms of both may exist in the same plant. The inoculation of 

 the bacterium in a plant or animal causes their increased number, 

 not by multiplication, but b)' so modifying the medium that the 

 normal microzymas more readily develop themselves into bac- 

 teriums. Many of the phenomena of spontaneous generation are 

 explained by these molecular granulations. Their natural and 

 universal presence has been alluded to in " Annual of Scientific 

 Discovery " lor 1869, pp. 301-306, :uid for 1868, p. 269. 



Singing Mice. — It is stated that the singing or whistling in these 

 rodents is always accompanied In- the presence of a parasite, 

 Cgsticercus fasciolnris, in the liver, and the sounds may be the ro- 



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