GENEVA SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY. 223 



Professor Gautier kiudly continued to inform us, as in times past, of 

 new discoveries in astronomy and meteorology. Amongst other sub- 

 jects, he mentioned Encke's comet, seven small new comets, three of 

 which were discovered by M. Borelli, the astronomer of Marseilles, and 

 a chart of shooting-stars observed by M. Ferrari on the night of the 11th 

 of August, in the neighborhood of the constellations of Perseus and 

 Cassiopia. He also alluded to a memoir published by the observatory 

 of Athens on Coggia's comet, and gave an account of meteorological 

 observations made at the observatory of Berne. Colonel Gautier sub- 

 mitted to us an analysis of a work by M. Trouvelot, an American 

 astronomer, on a new category of solar spots, the veiled spots. 



M. Raoul Pictet mentioned the second volume of M. Hiern on the 

 mechanical theory of heat. He also communicated to the society the 

 fact that sulphurous acid, after being used for several days in the ice 

 machine prepared by M. Pictet, and recently tested at Toulon and Mar- 

 seilles, was found much purer and more limpid than at the time of its 

 introduction into the machine, and no longer held sulphur in suspension, 

 and absolutely ceased to act upon metals, especially copper. The same 

 member, in giving an account of the trials he had made to determine 

 the conditions of equilibrium of a heavy body in a gaseous current, 

 pointed out to the society that there was in the interior of the conical 

 gaseous jet an ovoidal space, in the interior of which heavy bodies, such 

 as balls of different substances, remain in equilibrium, taking up a very 

 rapid rotatory movement. 



Professor Plantamour commented before the society upon a publica- 

 tion of M. Tacchiui on the Italian mission to the Indies to observe the 

 transit of Venus. 



Professor Prevost gave an account to the society of a memoir that he 

 had recently published in the Bulletin of the Medical Society of Switz- 

 erland on cases of alcoholic delirium observed in the cantonal hospital 

 of Geneva, during the year 1874-'75. The same member mentioned 

 the thesis of Dr. David on apomorphine, and also the researches of M. 

 A^ulpian on the singular effects of the paralyzatiou of the movement 

 of the heart. He showed to us a photograph of the brain of an aphasiac 

 patient observed at the hospital of the canton of Geneva. This brain, in 

 confirmation of Broca's opinion, presented a lesion in the third convolu- 

 tion of the left frontal hemisphere. On this occasion, Dr. Pr6vost re- 

 affirmed that a lesion in the island of Reil might have the same conse- 

 quence. He showed to the society a rat that had been perfectly pre- 

 served for two years by means of an injection of six grains of chloral. 

 Moreover, M. Prevost presented to us the circular of the committee 

 charged with the organization of the fifth session of the periodical In- 

 ternational Congress of the Medical Sciences to meet at Geneva, Sep- 

 tember 9, 1877, and gave some details of the congress. 



M. Eisler presented an analysis of M. Ebermayer's work on the influ- 

 ence of forests on climate. The same member furnished us with some 



