British Association for the Advancement of Science. 273 
some curious experiments recently made at Edinburgh, although 
first by Sir Astley Cooper in London, with respect to the circulation 
of blood through the brains of particular animals. If the circulation 
be suspended by pressure for half a minute, the animal becomes tor- 
pid, but after giving a few convulsive sobs recovers, whilst if it is sus- 
pended for a minute the animal irrecoverably dies. —The Chairman 
observed that he had often dried to powder the eggs of various in- 
sects, which having been put into water were hatched. 
On a Method of destroying Insects —The Rev. Mr. Hope read 
a letter from Sir Thomas Phillips, on a method of destroying insects 
which affect books and manuscripts, particularly the Anobia, For 
the purpose of preserving books, he had used paste, in which corro- 
sive sublimate was mixed, which would for some time resist their 
attacks. He had effected the destruction of Anobium striatum in 
his library, by placing in different parts of it pieces of beech plank, 
smeared over in the summer with pure fresh paste. It was soon 
discovered which pieces of the wood were infected, by the saw dust, 
and these were removed and burnt. So injurious is this species, that 
he considered that one impregnated female would be sufficient to 
destroy a whole library. He had also observed two other enemies— 
a small brown beetle ; and one much larger, introduced from Darm- 
stadt or Frankfort-on-the-Maine, which was not very abundant, al- 
though very destructive. ‘This latter was about six times the size 
of the former, of a black color, with white spots or stripes, belong- 
ing to the modern family Carcabonidy, and being most pastel to 
books:-bound 3 in oak boards. 
Mr. Curtis suggested the employment of spirits of turpentine, as 
the effect of corrosive sublimate, and other poisonous substances, 
Jasted only a short time, and soon stained the leather—The Chair- 
man remarked on the destructive effects produced by Dermestes in 
his library in Cuba. It was probable that the insects which attacked 
the paper were different from those which attacked the paste; the 
former being Acari, and the latter small coleopterous insects. He 
had found no method of preservation so effectual as to give the 
books a free current of air, and, for this purpose, he was always ac- 
customed to leave his book cases open, the books being placed about 
two inches from the wall, so as to allow a free circulation.—Mr. 
Hope remarked, that the infusion of quassia had been esteemed a 
preventive; and Mr. Gray stated, that, in Geneva, the water used 
in the manufacture of paper was that in which quassia had been in- 
