510 Chronicles of Science. [ July, 
exists. When putrid, the blood lost its power of affecting reagents, 
though four weeks after having been drawn, it was not quite inactive. 
Before closing our chronicle, we may direct attention to the report 
by Messrs. Hewlett, Stanley, and Reed, on the ventilation of the new 
barracks, at Gravesend, contained in the recently-issued statistical 
sanitary and medical reports for the Army Medical Department.* 
The observations made by these gentlemen show the importance of 
attending to the organic impurities floating in the atmosphere, and 
they bear out in many respects the conclusions arrived at by Pouchet 
and others. The method they employed was to draw the air, by 
means of an aspirator, through a solution of permanganate of potash, 
of known strength. The liquid became discoloured during the 
experiment, and a deposit occurred. This deposit was examined 
microscopically and found to contain fragments of epithelium, pus- 
cells, pieces of cotton fibre, shreds of wool, and large numbers of 
amorphous bodies. Dr. Parkes, in his remarks on these and other 
allied observations, points out that they put in a clearer light than 
before the necessity of ventilation, and the advantage of isolating 
patients, from whose bodies arise such quantities of organic particles. 
They would also seem likely to put on an experimental basis the 
doctrine of the transference of morbific agents from one person to 
another. The volume contains, besides, a large amount of very in- 
structive matter, not only as regards the health of the British Army, 
but on sanitary questions generally. 
XI. ZOOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
(Including Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London.) 
Tue two topics which have received the greatest attention during 
the past quarter are the discoveries of M. Lartet, respecting the co- 
existence of man and the reindeer in central France, and the theory 
of Dr. Hunt as to the Negro’s place in nature. The former subject 
comes perhaps more strictly within the range of the paleontologist, 
still it will not be out of place here to mention, that seventeen stations 
have been discovered in France where the presence of the reindeer 
has been ascertained in a state of subjection to man; but as to the 
epoch when the reindeer ceased to inhabit what is now temperate 
Kurope, there is no positive historical or chronological account. Its 
remains are not even found in the French turbaries, nor in the Swiss 
lacustrine pile-works; but remains are found in a cave of Mont 
Saléve, in which they are associated with simply worked flints; and 
in the grottoes of Perigord are found flint flakes, and utensils and 
weapons manufactured of the horns and bones of the reindeer. 
* London, 1863. 
_ +t A very interesting account of these remains, accompanied by illustrations, 
will be found in the letter of our Paris correspondent. (“Notes and Correspondence.’’) 
