Progress of Foreign Science. 143 
matter, washing off the last portions of it with an essential oil, 
squeezing the residuum, and boiling it a long time in water, to 
volatilize the oil, the odour of which cannot, however, be thereby 
completely discharged. Thus obtained, the fibrous matter is 
brown, having been somewhat altered by the temperature of the 
melted wax. It is tasteless. Placed on a hot iron, it twists itself 
and swells up, melts and is carbonized, diffusing the smell of 
broiled meat. Alcohol does not dissolve it; and hence by treating 
the extract of the vegetable milk repeatedly with hot alcohol, the 
fibrous matter is obtained white and flexible. In this state, it dis- 
solves readily in diluted muriatic acid. It possesses the same 
properties, therefore, as animal fibrine. Fibrine had already been 
found in the milky juice of the Carica papaya, by Vauquelin. Be= 
sides these two main constituents, the vegetable milk contains a 
little sugar, a magnesian salt (not an (acetate), and water. It 
contains neither caseum nor caoutchouc. By incineration, some 
silica, lime, phosphate of lime, and magnesia were obtained. The 
_ wax forms about one-half the weight of the milk.—Ann. de Chim. 
et de Phys. xxiii. 219. 
On the Hot Mineral Waters of the Cordilleras of Venezuela. By 
the same. 
The springs of Onoto issue copiously from gneiss. Their tem- 
perature is 44°5 centig. Their height above the level of the sea, 
is 702 metres. From the bottom of each reservoir, bubbles of 
azote rise from time to time in great abundance. The springs of 
Mariano have a temperature of 44° c., but in particular spots it is 
from 56° to 64°. They contain a very little sulphuretted hydro-~ 
gen. They also rise from gneiss, and evolve azote. Silica is the 
edominating ingredient in solution. Their height above the sea 
as 476 metres.—Ann. de Chim. et de Phys, xxiii. 272. 
Puysiotocgy.—On some recent Discoveries relative to the Nervous 
System. By M. Magendie. 
M. Magendie offers some proofs and illustrations of Mr. Charles 
Bell’s beautiful investigations, on the distinction between the nerves 
subservient to sensation and motion. An individual had lost the 
use of his two arms for several years, but he had retained a lively 
sensibility in these parts. He died, and on examining his body, 
the posterior roots of the brachial nerves (as they issue from the 
spine) were perfectly sound, while the anterior roots were evi- 
dently altered, had lost their medullary substance, and were re- 
duced to their membranous sheath. ‘The nerves give sensibility 
or mobility to our organs, only because they are connected with 
the spinal marrow; wheneyer they are insulated by a wound, or 
