PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, OF GENEVA. 2G7 



modified by this scientist's own observations, M. Prevost fonnd tbat tbe 

 cord of tbe tympanum is not entirely lost in tbe lower maxillary gland, 

 bat sends tbreads to tbe tongue. Employing tbe Waller metbod, be 

 divided tbe tympannm-cord of dogs, cats, &c., and a few days after 

 found wasted nervous tubes in tbe terminal brancbes of tbe lingual. 



M. Prevost bas given ns tbe results of some experiments upon tbe 

 nerves of taste. Tbese are opposed to tbe bypotbesis tbat tbe fibers, 

 of tbe lingual nerve wbicb transmits tbe gustatory impressions, pass 

 tbrougb tbe spbeno-palatine ganglion. In fact, tbe amputation of two 

 spbeno-palatine ganglions, accompanied by tbe section of tbe two glosso- 

 pbaryugeal nerves, does not alter tbe transmission of tbe gustatory sen- 

 sations in the parts moved by the lingual nerve. 



Under tbe bead of physiology should also be mentioned a communi- 

 cation concerning tbe investigations of tbe congress of medical men at 

 Lyons, in regard to tbe supposed cause of tbe fevers which justly give 

 to the climate of tbe Dombes a character for insalubrity. In this com- 

 munication tbe intermittent fever of tbese regions is attributed to tbe 

 spores of a conferva, very abundant in tbe marshes of that neighbor- 

 hood, wbicb rise in tbe air, with tbe water evaporated. 



M. Lombard, in regard to a subject upon wbicb he bad before ad- 

 dressed tbe society, presented the fact tbat pulmonary consumption or 

 I)htbisis decreases with altitude, and mentioned Davos station, at an 

 elevation of 1,55G meters, as having been found particularly favorable 

 to persons affected with this disease. 



In natural history proper, M. V. Fatio has given an account of his 

 researches in regard to tbe development of tbe black salamander, which 

 differs greatly from that of the spotted variety. Tbe black salamander 

 produces only two living progeny, although at the same time the ovary 

 contains a large number of eggs. Four of tbese eggs are developed 

 at tbe expense of the others, which are decomposed and serve tbem as 

 nourishment; after a time tbe development of two of tbe four embryos 

 is arrested, and they in turn serve as nutrition for tbe last two, which 

 alone survive, and are born after undergoing various m.etaraorphoses. 



M. Lombard exhibited to the society a blind fish from the Mammoth 

 Cave of Kentucky, sent to tbe Museum of Geneva by M. V. Lombard. 



Vegetable pbysiology bas been represented, first, by a communication 

 from M. Eissler, upon the nutrition of plants. M. Rissler reminded the 

 society that he had before presented some researcbes upon the double 

 l^art played by tbe humus, which assists the dissolution of tbe mineral 

 substances useful to the plant, and also furnishes a portion of the car- 

 bon it contains. His views were opposed to a subsequent memoir upon 

 the same subject, to wbicb he drew attention, by M. Grandeau, in which 

 M. Rissler's researcbes are not mentioned, and according to which the 

 part played by the humus consists only in dissolving the nutritive sub- 

 stances. 



M. de Caudolle, in noticing tbe appearance, recently observed, of Al- 



