PHYSIOLOGY. 



PORTO RICO. 



T21 



too wide deductions from the experiments. They 

 simply show that the limited quantity of alcohol 

 that was given with other food in the diet of 

 healthy men for periods of a few days was almost 

 completely burned in the body and yielded a cer- 

 tain amount of energy, and that this energy was 

 utilized in the body as is the energy of the hydro- 

 carbons of ordinary food. No other relations or 

 effects of alcohol in the body come under the 

 scope of the investigation. 



Dr. A. Campbell White has obtained results 

 from experiments on the application of liquid air 

 to the tissues of the body which encourage the 

 belief that that substance may come into use as 

 a local anaesthetic, and possibly for other medical 

 and surgical purposes. The difference in tempera- 

 ture between liquid air and the human body is 

 so great that it affords a unique means of pro- 

 ducing a sudden and extreme shock to a localized 

 part of the body without localized destruction of 

 tissue and without affecting the general system. 



In a study of the coagulation of proteid by 

 electricity, W. B. Hardy has found that under the 

 influence of a constant current the particles of 

 proteid in a boiled solution of egg white move 

 with the negative stream if the reaction of the 

 fluid is alkaline, and with the positive stream if 

 the reaction is acid. The particles under this 

 directive action of the current aggregate to form 

 a coagulum. 



Commenting on a reported case of a family of 

 three children, two of whom, boys, have the right 

 eye. hazel and the left eye blue, and the third, a 

 girl, the right eye blue and the left hazel, the 

 father having blue eyes and the mother hazel, 

 the Lancet says that the condition described, 

 though uncommon, is not extremely rare. Two 

 forms of heterochromia are recognized by oph- 

 thalmologists one in which one eye only is par- 

 ti-colored, a segment of the iris being of one 

 color and the remainder of another, " hetero- 

 chromia unilateralis "; and the other, in which 

 the iris of one eye is different in color from that 

 of the other, " heterochromia bilateralis." The 

 dark color of the iris in the southern nations and 

 in the yellow races, as in the Chinese, is due to 

 pigment in the superficial cells and in the cells 

 of the stroma. The blue iris observed in the 

 northern nations is due to the absence of pigment. 

 It has been thought that eyes presenting a dif- 

 ference in color in their irides are not perfectly 

 developed, but it does not appear that there are 

 any statistics bearing upon the question. The in- 

 fluence of heredity on the color of the eyes has 

 been shown to be marked. 



Investigating the question of the presence of a 

 nucleus in yeast cells, H. Wager found in all 

 the species of 8accharomi/ces examined what he 

 called a " nuclear apparatus " that is, a special 

 portion which appeared to be set apart to perform 

 the function of a nucleus. This nuclear body is 

 perfectly homogeneous, even when observed under 

 the highest powers of the microscope, and appears 

 to correspond rather with the nucleole of higher 

 plants. One of these bodies is found in every 

 yeast cell. In addition to the nuclear body, there 

 is in every yeast cell a structure of the nature 

 of a vacuole, which appears to be an essential 

 part of the nuclear apparatus, and to possess 

 some of the attributes of a nucleus. This struc- 

 ture has often been mistaken for the nucleus itself. 



In his microscopical observations of the struc- 

 ture of the skin in man and the lower animals, 

 M. Ranvier has found that the Malpighian layer 

 is characterized by the presence of numerous 

 fibrils imbedded in the cell protoplasm, and he 

 lias therefore named it the stratum nlamentosum. 

 VOL. xxxix. 46 A 



The filaments are not affected by water even when 

 boiling; they swell in acids and in alkalies, and 

 are colored violet with hsematoxylin and red with 

 carmine. With thionine they assume a pale green 

 tint or remain uncolored, though that substance 

 renders the cell protoplasm intense violet. The 

 filaments are therefore not simply processes of 

 the protoplasm. They arc doubly refracting. 

 Like the granules of eleidine in the stratum 

 granulosum or like starch grains they are prod- 

 ucts of cell activity. The stratum lucidum of 

 Oehl and Schroen was found to be in reality 

 double. To demonstrate this, sections of skin 

 made after immersion for an hour in osmic acid, 

 then for twenty-four hours in alcohol, are colored 

 with picrocarminate and examined in glycerin. 

 The eleidine is not colored, because it has under- 

 gone osmic metallization. The true stratum lu- 

 cidum is not colored either by the carmine or by 

 the osmic acid, but immediately beneath it and 

 above the stratum granulosum is a thin layer 

 which assumes a bright red color. It is composed 

 of only two or three layers of transparent cells. 

 Its external surface is smooth,, its internal is 

 festooned. It is this layer which in M. Ranvier's 

 opinion really separates the two chief layers of 

 the skin, the only ones formerly admitted viz., 

 the corneal layer and the Malpighian layer. The 

 author names it the stratum intermedium. While 

 it colors deeply with carmine, it does not color 

 at all with purpurine. After hardening in alco- 

 hol it remains uncolored with thionine, while this 

 stain colors the stratum corneum verum green 

 and the stratum filamentosum violet. The nuclei 

 of the cells of the stratum intermedium are 

 atrophied and their investing membranes present 

 epidermic fibrils which are wound like the 

 threads in a cocoon. According to M. Ranvier, 

 then, no less than seven distinct layers can be 

 demonstrated by the aid of staining agents .to 

 be present in the epidermis. 



PORTO RICO, an island of the West Indies, 

 formerly a colony of Spain, ceded to the United 

 States by the treaty signed at Paris on Dec. 10, 

 1898, and ratified by the United States Senate 

 on Feb. 6, 1899, and by the Queen Regent of Spain 

 on March 17, 1899. 



Area and Population. The island is about 

 43 miles broad and has an extreme length of 108 

 miles. The area is 3,688 square miles. The popu- 

 lation in 1887 was 814,708, of whom over 300,000 

 were negroes and a large part of the remainder 

 of mixed blood. The population was composed 

 of 399,022 males and 399,544 females. The popu- 

 lation of the chief towns was: Ponce, 42,388; 

 Utuado, 31,209; San Juan, the capital, 26,387. 

 In 1899 there were 957,000 inhabitants on the 

 island. San Juan had 32,500 and Ponce 56,000. 



Commerce and Production. The most valu- 

 able product is coffee, of which 26,655 tons were 

 exported in 1896. The export of sugar was 54,205 

 tons; of molasses, 14,740 tons; of tobacco, 1,039 

 tons; of cattle, 3,178 head. The value in United 

 States currency of the total imports in 1895 was 

 $16,155,056, against $18,316,971 in 1894; the value 

 of exports was $14,629,494, against $16,015,665. 

 The chief imports in 1895 were rice for $2,180,004; 

 fish, $1,591,418; meat and lard, $1,223,104; flour, 

 $982,222; manufactured tobacco, $663,464; olive 

 oil $327,801; cheese, $324,137; wine, $305,656; 

 soap, $238,525; iron, $224,206; vegetables, $192,- 

 918] provisions, $171,322; jerked beef, $133,616; 

 coal $119,403. The value of the coffee exported 

 in 1895 was $8,789,788; of the sugar, $3,747,891; 

 of the tobacco, $646,556; of the honey, $517,746. 

 The imports of Porto Rican produce into Spain 

 in 1895 were reported as $5,824,694 in value, and 



