200 TROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF 



tho opinion that llic old cedars wliicli now exist there arc but the remains of 

 an ani-ient fon-st. datiii}; from an epoch more favorable to the development of 

 the specii ;*. Jt is ccitain, in the mean lime, that the cedar of Lebanon, that of 

 the Himalaya, and that of the Atlas present varieties which it is ditlicult to 

 distinj^aiish from one another. Hence M. Hooker is disposed to admit that 

 they all descend from one primitive form, which has spread itself over a vast 

 region when the climate was more temperate than it is at present. 



To Kev. 51. Diiby we are indebted for a note relative to observations made 

 at Bombay, on a chami)igrion or fungus which attacks the feet of the natives, 

 and produces a malady known in the country under the name of " podelcoma 

 mycetoma." The bones of the foot and lower leg are gradually perforated 

 through and through, and the champignon, which bears spores very similar to 

 those (if the ouliuin, lodges in the cavities thus formed, under the shape of a 

 ppongv mass. M. Duby has also occupied our attention with the very ingenioiia 

 observations of 51. Darwin on '• the mode of fecundation of the red ilax." The 

 same botanist also announces that he has observed in the CallistacJij/s linearis 

 a very remarkable movtmcnt of the inferior leaves which, at the decline of day 

 embrace the stem, while the superior leaves embrace the ear. 



Zoologif and P/ii^siologi/. — Dr. Dor called the attention of the Society to a 

 new tlieoiy of Daltonism, or rather to an old theory of Young, to which there 

 seems to be a tendency to recur at the pn^sent time. Agreeably to this theory 

 there exist in the retina three descriptions of nervous fibres; the first sensitive 

 to red, the second to green, the third to violet. Daltonists, then, would be 

 tliosc in whoin one of these orders of fibres' is completely paralyzed. M. Dor 

 has also proposed a new scale of characters for measuring the distinctness of 

 vision. 



51. Victor Fatio presented to the Society a specimen of a lizard of the Alps 

 called " Laccrta nigra," regarded by some authors as constituting a particular 

 species. 51. Fatio is rather dis]iosed to consider it as being but a simple variety 

 of the " Lacerta vivipara," and he adduces the reasons which lead him to hold 

 this opinion. 



'J'he same physiologist read to the Society a note on the habits of the " pleo- 

 bate cultripede," of the coasts of Brittany. He has ascertained that this batra- 

 chian is a nocturnal animal, Mhich buries itself dui-ing the day in the sand, and 

 remains there till night in a state of conijilete iunr.obility. 51. Fatio has also 

 commmiicated to us a ])lan of goograjdiical distribution, designed to form the 

 basis of an extensive work, wlueh he has undertaken with the vicAV of making 

 a complete catalogue of the \(,'rtebrata of Switzerland. 



To complete what we have to say on organic natural history, we should 

 mention an interesting notice by 51. Mullcr, relative to the recent modifications 

 ■which the theory of cellular org;niization has undergone through the infiuence 

 of the labors of 5151. J-Jriicke and 51a.\. Schultze; and a communication of 51. 

 Claparede, in which that physiologist renders an accouiit of some epidemic 

 instances of "trichinus spiralis" lately authenticated in Germany, and more 

 especially in Saxony. It, is now known that the larva of this })arasite continues 

 to liv(! in the llesli of the hog when insufficiently smoked. Xow, a single pair 

 of these animalcules, arriving at maturity in the human intestine, sulilce to 

 infect with larv;c all the nuiscles of the body, and to occasion the gravest cou- 

 eeqnences, sometimes evtju death. 'Plie danger of such an infection is now so 

 fully realized that the inhabitiuit.s of Flanen, in Saxony, have established at 

 their slangliier-liouse an official, j)rovided with a microscope, and have prohibited 

 the sale of hogs whose flesh has not been jjreviously examined with the help of 

 that instrument.* 



* For au appcudix to tliis part of the report see the cud of this article. 



