PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 921 



people disagreeable. Happily, having two agents, we can in a 

 great measure neutralize the ol)jections. The author prefers to 

 use the sulphite of soda. He also gives one drop of phenic acid 

 with three drops of chloroform in gum- water. 



Cell Formation. 

 Dr. C. Montgomery has given to the Royal Society, account of 

 some recent experiments bearing upon the chemical theory of cell 

 formations. He seems to have gone some steps beyond Kirchow 

 and Bcneke in observing phenomena connected with myelin, a 

 peculiar, tatty and viscid substance, resulting from the evaporation 

 of the alcoholic extract of hard boiled eggs or of the brain, crystal- 

 line lense and other animal tissues. According to Bencke it is 

 also fomid in the lower animal organizations and in plants. By 

 mixing white of egg with myelin and Avater, Dr. Montgomery 

 obtained globules having a lively molecular movement. A typical 

 cell with nucleus and even with entoblast was present, and the 

 white margin was visible which is so often mistaken for a cell wall. 

 Globules were found enclosing a smaller globule, and sometimes 

 more than one like the typical pus cell. Serum combined with a 

 thin layer or myelin bi-conave discs, generally much larger than 

 blood corpuscles, will be formed. The " cell " thus formed being 

 the physical result of chemical changes, cannot, in the opinion of 

 the author, any longer aftbrd a last retreat to those of specific 

 forces called vital, and physiology must embrace more than the 

 study of the functions of a variety of ultimate organic units. 



Respiratory Apparatus. 



The London Chemical News states that the apparatus invented 

 by' M. Galibert, of Paris, has become very popular in France and 

 England. Public experiments have been made with it at Paris, 

 London, Southampton, Cherbourg, Toulon, Brest, and many other 

 towns, and the success has been wonderful. Its object is to protect 

 life from the dangers of an irrespiraljle medium, no matter what 

 the nature; penetrating and thick smoke, nitrous, sulphurous, or 

 carbonic acids; sulphuretted hydrogen, nitrogen, coal gases, &c. 

 It is composed essentially of a reseiToir of air, formed of a tissue, 

 completely impenetrable, which the operator carries with him 

 wherever he wishes to enter. At first the reservoir was formed of 

 goat-skins, similar to those which serve in Italy, Spain, the South 

 of France, &c., for containing wine or oil. These sacks, from the 



