Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 371 



agitates its tail, and strikes its sides with it. They imagined 

 that the lion sought to excite himself by pricking his sides with 

 the horny production in question. Blumenbach, some years 

 ago, verified the existence of this prickle ; but the pamphlet 

 in which his observations were contained, has remained unno- 

 ticed by naturalists, and the curious fact of which we speak, 

 might long have remained unknown, had not M. Deshayes hap- 

 pened to see the pamphlet in question, and engage the natu- 

 ralists who more particularly study the department of mamma- 

 logy, to make some observations on the subject *. This prickle 

 or spur, adhering only to the skin by the circumference of its 

 base, is very easily detached. In general, no traces of it re- 

 main in stuffed individuals. It has not yet been observed whe- 

 ther it exists equally in the other large species of the genus 

 Felis. 



22. Insufflation of Animals. — M. Leroy has discovered that 

 atmospheric air, strongly impelled into the trachea of certain 

 animals, such as rabbits, goats, sheep, foxes, &c. causes sud- 

 den death. Other animals, dogs, for example, in which the 

 pulmonary tissue is less delicate, resist this operation, but are 

 more or less incommoded by it. Goats and sheep died under 

 the eyes of persons appointed by the Academy to report upon 

 the discovery, after air had been impelled into their lungs 

 without the aid of a machine, but merely by the mouth of the 

 experimenter. It would appear, that most commonly the air 

 blown in lacerates the delicate tissue of the lung at the upper 

 part. Insufflation being recommended as an efficacious means 

 of restoring drowned persons to life, it is of the greatest im- 

 portance to know if human lungs are similar to those of the 

 sheep and goat in tliis respect, or if they are possessed of a 

 power of resistance equal to that of the dog. If the former be 

 the case, insufflation would prove mortal to suffocated persons. 

 Direct experiments are wanting on this subject ; but trials made 

 on the dead body, shew that the human lung may be ruptured 

 by insufflation. The lungs of very young children, on the con- 

 trary, resist the action of a very strong insufflation.— .4ww. de 

 Chim. et de Phys. 



' A translation of the memoir of Blumenbach is inserted in a former 

 volume of this Journal. 



