830 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



which is the proto-sulphate of iron in fine powder, rubbed up with 

 raw linseed oil. 



The Calabar Bean. — One of the Paris journals asserts that this 

 has been found to be an antidote to strychnia. The latter destroj's 

 by spasmodic contraction ; the former when taken alone paralyzes, 

 and consequently neutralizes the action of str3'chnia if given after 

 that poison. The most interesting effect of the Calabar bean is 

 that of contracting the pupil of the eye, whereby distant objects 

 are apparently magnified and seen nearer, and it is now consider- 

 ably used for increasing the power of accommodating the eye to 

 distances. 



Sea-Weeds as Food. — Sea- weeds, according to Dr. Letheby, an 

 English physician, furnish an abundance of nutritious food, which 

 by a little management may be made palatable. He asserts that 

 when in moderately dry condition sea-weeds contain from 18 to 

 26 per cent, of water; and that the nitrogenous constituents 

 amount to from 9| to 15 per cent., while the starchy matter and 

 sugar average about 66 per cent., and that these results place sea- 

 weeds among the most nutritious of vegetable substances ; in fact, 

 being richer in nitrogenous matter than oatmeal or Indian corn. 



Preservation of Anatomical Specimens. — The process of M. Von 

 Vetter: " Add to 7 parts of glycerine at 22° 1 part of raw brown 

 sugar and half a part of nitre, till a slight deposit is formed at the 

 bottom of the vessel. The portion required to be preserved is 

 then plunged, dried or not dried, and is left in the mixture for a 

 time proportional to its dimensions ; a hand, for example, should 

 remain 8 days in the liquid; when it is taken out it is as stiff 

 as a piece of wood, but if it be suspended in a dry and warm 

 place the muscles and articulations recover their suppleness." 



Petrification of the Human Body. — W. P. Bain, M.D., writes as 

 follows to the "Lancet," on the subject of Dr. Marini's prepara- 

 tions of the human body : — 



" Having handled some of his preparations in Florence last 

 autumn, I am able to say that he is the inventor of a mode of turn- 

 ing the human body or any part of it into stone, in any attitude 

 that may be desired. I inclose the photograph of a senator of the 

 Italian Parliament taken four months after his decease, in which 

 he is represented seated in his chair, with his clothes on, just as 

 when alive, his eyes retaining in an astonishing degree the vivac- 

 ity of life. I also inclose the photograph of a table, the slab of 

 which is formed of pieces of the human body, — brain, muscles, 

 etc., — all turned into stone, and which, when struck by me, 

 sounded as a marble table. I also inspected a lady's foot, like- 

 wise petrified, and which had every appearance of marble, until 

 upon close inspection the texture of the skin was apparent. Dr. 

 Marini showed me, too, some specimens of the human body, 

 which were in a moist and perfect condition, preserved for years. 

 He assured me also that the week before he had dined oft' a duck 

 which had been killed months previously. Tiie foot of a mummy 

 was in his apartment at the time of my visit, in which the color 

 assumed that of life, and the toes were perfectly flexible. 



