356 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



mologists assert that such a thing is not likely. The insect being entirely 

 unknown to French savans, the Marshal announced that he had, in the name 

 of the Academy, writtten to the Russian Embassy, to ask if Russian ball- 

 cartridges in the Crimea had ever been noticed to have been pierced by 

 insects; and, if so, if Russian entomologists can give any details respecting 

 the insect and its way of living. The Marshal adds, that it seems not to 

 have any similitude with the Cetonia aurata, which pierces through lead, but 

 casts aside the lead it cuts away. M. Dumeril, in the course of some obser- 

 vations on the subject,, said that examples existed of balls having been 

 pierced through by insects at Toulon, and that the insect which had attacked 

 those from the Crimea was undoubtedly a Urocera. 



NOTES OF EXPERIMENTS ON DIGESTION. 



Dr. Harley, in a communication to the British Association, Leeds meet- 

 ings, stated that, contrary to an opinion lately published by Bernard, the 

 distinguished French physiologist, he had found that the human saliva con- 

 tains both sulphocyanide of potassium and iron. The latter substance, 

 however, can only be detected after the organic matters contained in the 

 secretion are destroyed by burning. Dr. Harley had ascertained that a per- 

 son of nine stone secreted between one and two pounds of saliva in twenty- 

 four hours. The gastric juice, the author said, does not destroy the power 

 possessed by the saliva of transforming starch into sugar; consequently, the 

 digestion of amylaceous food is continued in the stomach. The gastric juice 

 has the property of changing cane into grape sugar. The author made 

 some remarks upon the cause of the gastric juice not digesting the living 

 stomach ; and said that his experiments showed that it is not the epithelium 

 lining the organ which prevents its being digested, but the layer of thick 

 mucus which covers its walls. When the latter substance is absent, the gas- 

 tric juice attacks the walls of the living stomach, and digests them, causing 

 perforation and death. As regards the bile, it seems that this secretion takes 

 an active part in rendering the fatty matters of our food capable of being 

 absorbed into the system. The most curious of all the digestive fluids, how- 

 ever, is the pancreatic secretion, for it unites in itself the properties of all 

 the others. It not only transforms starch and other such substances into 

 sugar, but it emulsions fat, and even digests protein compounds. As a rem- 

 edy in indigestion, pancreatine should be greatly superior to pepsine, which 

 can only digest one kind of food, namely, protein. The author said he had 

 been laboring to obtain pancreatine in a perfectly pure state, and had been 

 to a certain extent successful. With pancreatine we should be able to digest 

 any kind of food we pleased; and, therefore, the obtaining of it in a state of 

 purity would prove an invaluable boon to suffering humanity. 



THE SALIVARY GLANDS. 



The saliva appears to possess three most important properties; firstly, it 

 destroys vitality in all animal and vegetable matter; secondly, it loosens the 

 tissues, thereby preparing them to receive the saliva itself, and ultimately to 

 admit the gastric juice; and thirdly, it mechanically softens and dilutes hard 

 or dry food. When a cow fills her paunch with grass, she places there a 

 lai-ge amount of living vegetable material ; lying in that organ, or transfer- 

 ring it to the second stomach, no way affects its vitality, but when thrown 



