BIOLOGY. 327 



That during gestation, there is unusual difficulty in healing 

 fractures, owing to the appropriation of ever}^ particle of earthy- 

 phosphate to the foetus to form its bone, and at the same time there 

 is a great tendency to glucosuria. 



To prove that phosphates have this power, he makes the follow- 

 ing experiment : A solution of ordinary diphosphate of soda is 

 made in water containing carbonic acid, and is mixed with cane 

 sugar. In a fortnight this solution will be found to be thick and 

 viscous. He therefore recommends the administration of phos- 

 phates and phosphoric acid. 



In albuminuria, a most valuable constituent of the system is 

 wasted through the urine. If M. CoUas's reasoning is true with 

 respect to the waste of sugar, by parity of argument, it seems 

 probable that the loss of albumen may arise from the absence of 

 fixing principles, and this would immediately suggest the adminis- 

 tration of remedies capable of coagulating albumen, such as min- 

 eral acids, alkaline nitrates, etc. In fact the number is so exten- 

 sive that the only difficulty would seem to be in the selection. 



Local Ancesthesia. — The "Medical Gazette " contains the follow- 

 ing report of a case in which ether was thus applied : — 



" The subject of the experiment had 16 teeth extracted with 

 scarcely any pain, and what little discomfort there was, he referred 

 rather to the gum than to the dental nerves. Richardson's spray- 

 instrument was used, and the jet directed upon the external ori- 

 fice of the ear, and a little in front of it for between 3 and 4 

 minutes. One side was anaesthetized first, and a number of teeth 

 and stumps on that side extracted, and the same process repeated 

 afterward on the opposite side. The central incisor of the side 

 first operated on caused some pain, partly, perhaps, from subsi- 

 dence of the anaesthetic action (that being the last tooth removed 

 on that side), partly, possibly, from some inosculation of the ter- 

 minal branches of the superior maxillary nerve of the oi^posite, 

 undeadened side. 



♦* Many physiologists hold that the anaesthesia produced by the 

 spray instrument is due, not to any specific effi;ct of the agent eni- 

 ployed, but simply to a ' freezing process,' the result of rapid 

 evaporation. In this case, however, even the integument (though 

 greatly reduced in temperature) was not frozen, and, had it been, 

 it would have been impossible for the mere action of cold to pen- 

 etrate to the ganglion of Casser. The subcutaneous cellular tis- 

 sue, fat (the worst possible conductor) muscular and fibrous layers, 

 must surely protect the ganglion from very intense refrigeration, 

 and, moreover, the insensibility of the dental nerves continued 

 for some minutes after the skin had recovered its warmth at the 

 spot where the spray had been applied." 



Minute Structure of the Liver. — Hering, Eberth, and others, 

 have given up Dr. Beale's view, as also that which attributes to 

 the bile-ducts the formation of distinct capillaries within the 

 lobules, having a membrana propria like the blood-capillaries, 

 and in contact only externally with the liver-cells. Prof. Turner 

 supports the new view ; namely, tiiat the bile passes to the pe- 

 riphery of the lobule in channels which lie between and have their 



