PROGKESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE, 191 



be performed histournage ou botli sides at different times, viz. on the 

 right side before injection of the microzyme liquid, on the left after 

 the injection. On the left side there were gangrene and surrounding 

 inflammation as in the former experiments, but on the right these were 

 absent. Their absence appeared plainly to indicate that the entrance 

 of blood containing septic products was a sine qua non in the produc- 

 tion of the gangrene. M. Chauveau would therefore refuse to attribute 

 the result either to the increase of temperature (fever) or to the 

 general functional disorder produced by the injection, but would refer 

 it directly to the septic products, the presence of which in the blood 

 is the determining cause of the fever itself. With reference to these 

 important experiments, one of which Dr. Sanderson had recently the 

 opportunity of witnessing, he thinks it is to be noticed, first, that 

 although they appear clearly to show that in the present case the 

 septic jjrocess was set up in the part by the agency of products carried 

 into it by the blood-stream and of extrinsic origin, they are not con- 

 tradictory to other facts which show that under other conditions an 

 inflamed or injured part may become the seat of septic changes inde- 

 pendently of any contamination from without ; and secondly that they 

 do not afford any answer to the question whether niicrozymes are the 

 generators or merely the carriers of the poison resident in septic exu- 

 dation-liquids. Their chief value consists in the light thrown by 

 them on the mechanism by which septic impregnation of the blood 

 reacts on local processes. 



LamarcJc's ' PMlosopMe ZoologiqueJ' — We learn from a letter which 

 a Dublin correspondent, whose name is not given, has sent to the 

 ' Lancet ' (July 12th), that the original edition of Lamarck's ' Philoso- 

 phic Zoologique,' which appeared in 1809, has been reprinted with 

 scrupulous fidelity by M. Charles Martins. The work marks the point 

 of departure for all theories of evolution, and entitles France to claim 

 a considerable share in the movement of which Darwin is the greatest 

 representative, and which is now affecting so profoundly the i:)hilo- 

 sophy of natural science. M. Martins prefaces it by an introduction 

 treating of the biography of Lamarck, and bringing forward unknown 

 facts relating to that savant — facts which were beyond the reach of 

 contemporary appreciation, but which prove him to have anticipated 

 at the commencement of the nineteenth century many of the most 

 striking generalizations of living naturalists. 



Do Cryptogamic Plants influence the presence of Lead and Iron in 

 Water r? — According to a Dutchman, M, W. Dammann, they do. In 

 the ' Medical Kecord ' (May 7) he says that diu-ing the years 

 1864-1867, a number of cases of lead-poisoning, both acute and 

 chronic, came under his notice. On examining the water, negative 

 results only were obtained. There were present, however, large num- 

 bers of cryptogamic j)lants, sometimes of a reddish-brown colour ; 

 and, believing it not impossible that lead might be taken ui^ by these 

 organisms in the same way as iron, sulphui-, lime, &c., he filled two 

 bottles with distilled water, and having placed some acetate of lead 

 in one and some minium in the other, he introduced into both 



