308 SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF ^^ENEVA. 



Dr. Prevost communicated to us his researches in experimental physi- 

 ology relative to the seat of the sense of smell. This memoir has been 

 published in the March number (18G9) of the Archives des sciences phy- 

 siques et naturelles. He also made us acquainted with the experiments 

 which he had performed at Paris and Berlin in the extirpation of the 

 spheno-palatine ganglion", an operation which, in the opinion of Dr. 

 Schiff, must sui)press the sense of taste in the anterior i^art of the 

 tongue. The experiments in question gave, however, a negative result. 

 M. Prevost also recalled the experiments of Dr. Waller on the atrophy 

 of the peripheral nerves when separated from the central trunk. Ac- 

 cording to this learned physiologist, if the vidian branch of the lingual 

 nerve received gustatory nervous fibers, this branch would be atrophied 

 after the section of the spheno-palatine ganglion ; this, however, has 

 not been found to be the case by M. Prevost, who has always foimd it 

 unimpaired after the operation. 



Dr. Dor gave an account of new experiments made "wdth a view to de- 

 termine the velocity of the transmission of sensations. 



Dr. Gosse presented skulls found by Dr. Forel de Morges in an an- 

 cient cemetery near Saint-Prex. These skulls are artificially deformed 

 for the i)urpose of prodncing a frontal depression. Similar cases had 

 been previously observed by M. Troyon near Lausanne, and by M. Gosse 

 near Eegny. This flattening of the front by means of a board was a 

 national custom among certain tribes, and especially among the Avari. 

 Depressed skulls have been found at Vienna, in the Crimea, and at Van- 

 couver's Island. A traveler in China relates that they occur also *in 

 Mongolia, in verj^ ancient skulls. A memoir published at St. Peters- 

 burg designates them by the name of macrocephaUc, but this term might 

 create some confusion with the Macrocephali of Hippocrates and Strabo, 

 among whom the object was rather to produce protrusion of the frontal 

 bone. This frontal depression causes ordinarily a certain degree of 

 prognathism ; it does not imi)air the functions of mobility, but simply 

 lowers the grade of intelligence. 



Such is a summary review of the facts which have occupied our ses- 

 sions. It will be seen that they are alike numerous and varied, and 

 furnish renewed testimony of the scientific zeal which still subsists 

 among us. May our unpretending labors have the effect of enlarging 

 the field of human knowledge, and consequently of promoting the dif- 

 fusion of light in our country. We shall thus have accomplished, as far 

 as depends on us, the purpose which presided at the foundation of our 

 . society ; a society which already counts nearly eighty years of existence. 



