250 



NATURE 



\yuly 20, 1876 



each other in dodging it. The expression used by them was 

 " Marndwullun no good for fight ; if he no hit 'em man, might 

 come back and hit your friend beside you." I questioned the 

 black fellows as to whether they thought a boomerang could be 

 thrown so as to return to the hand of the thrower. Seven said 

 "no," and characterised the statement as "jetbollan," i.e. a 

 falsehood ; the eighth said he once made a boomerang that when 

 thrown on a calm day with great care would gyrate round and 

 round until it descended to the ground not far from him, moving 

 as slowly as a leaf falling from a tree, and that he once ran for- 

 ward and nearly caught it. He said also "no Kumi (black 

 fellow) can catch a wunkun when he flying — he would cut his 

 hand open." 



All the black fellows were unanimous in stating that a boome- 

 rang when it has struck anything ceases its course. 



I have now stated all that at present suggests itself as to the 

 boomerxng. I fear that I may have trespassed too much on 

 your space and on the patience of your readers. 



Bairnsdale, Gippsland, Victoria, Alfred W. HowiTT 

 March 3 



Fertilisation of Flowers. — The Cuckoo 



As a fact interesting in connection with the fertilisation of 

 flowers, I have observed that in Scabiosa arvensis the stamens are 

 elongated and the anthers ripened successively — not simul- 

 taneously — in each individual floret, the first having fallen off the 

 filament, while the fourth is yet colourless and curled up in the 

 tube of the corolla, the other two being in intermediate stages of 

 development. 



May I also state in reference to the Cuckoo, that a ihyme well 

 known in Somersetshire, runs thus : — 



" In April, come he will, 

 In May, he sings all day, 

 In June, he alters his tune. 

 In July, he prepares to fly, 

 In August, go he must." 

 By which it is clearly not meant that the Cuckoo ceases to sing 

 in that part of the country at Midsummer. This break of note 

 in June is generally to be noticed about the middle of the month. 

 I, this year, heard it for the first time on the 28th May. 

 Ealing Chas. Fred. White 



The Cuckoo 

 In connection with the notes of Mr. Adair and Mr. Joyner in 

 Nature of July 6th and 13th, let me record that the Cuckoo 

 has not even yet left us in the Midlands. I heard it only last 

 evening near to my own house. There is a popular rhyme, long 

 current in Derbyshire, concerning this bird. One couplet tells 

 us the Cuckoo may be heard 



" In April, May, June, and July, 

 If she sings any longer she'll tell a story ;" 

 so that even this rude rhyme shows that it is not expected to 

 depart earlier than this month. Llewellynn Jewitt 



Winster Hall, Derbyshire, July 15 



ABSTRACT REPORT TO ''NATURE'' ON EX- 

 PERIMENTA TION ON ANIMALS FOR THE 

 ADVANCE OF PRACTICAL MEDICINE'' 

 IV. 



Experimentation for Determining the best means ^ 

 Restoring Animation after some Forms of Accidental 

 Death. 



THE frequent occurrences of death from the adminis- 

 tration of chloroform and other agents of the 

 ansesthetic series led me very early to experiment for the 

 purpose of discovering the best means of restoring life 

 after such accidents. I commenced this research in 1851, 

 and have continued it up to the present time. I consider 

 it to have been one of the most fruitful in useful prac- 

 tical results. The details of the work have been com- 

 municated at various times to the world of science, and 

 at considerable length. They formed the subject of a 

 special report to the British Medical Association at its 

 meeting in London in 1862. They formed the subject of 

 a report to the Royal Society in 1865. They were con- 



' Continued from p 199. 



tinned in the Croonian Lecture delivered before the same 

 Society in 1873, and they were introduced into various 

 lectures on experimental and practical medicine, and into 

 reports on the physiological action of organic chemical 

 compounds made to the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. 



As the account of these inquiries covers a great deal of 

 ground and brings into light many curious and interesting 

 topics, I shall devote a little extra time to the abstract of 

 the experimentation. 



Method of Experinie7ital Research. 



The mode of experiment in this research has consisted 

 chiefly in testing the action of the narcotic vapours ; the 

 vapours of chloroform, ether, nitrous oxide, carbonic 

 acid, choke damp, carbonic oxide, hydrocyanic acid, 

 methylal, chloral hydrate, and others similar. Some 

 inquiries have also been made relative to instant death 

 by mechanical and electrical shocks, and to death by 

 drowning and cold. 



In every case the animal has been submitted as pain- 

 lessly and rapidly as possible to the process which we 

 call death. The rapidity and painlessness were essential 

 to the experimental inquiry ; because the more rapidly 

 and the more placidly the animation is suspended, the 

 less is the body exposed to the risk of organic injury. 



In the course of observation two steps have been fol- 

 lowed. 



I. 



In the first line of inquiry the animals have been 

 allowed to die without any attempt to restore life, the object 

 being to ascertain why death took place. After death the 

 organs of the body have been examined in order to deter- 

 mine what was the action of the destroying agent on them. 

 How did it arrest the living action .'' 



The first question asked had relation to the condi- 

 tion of the lungs : — Were they left bloodless, containing 

 some blood, or congested with blood ? The second 

 question had relation to the heart : — Were its cavities 

 left full, or empty of blood ; were they distended or 

 collapsed ; was the blood left in the cavitits of natural 

 or unnatural colour ; were the muscular walls of the 

 heart still excitable to motion, or were they quite in- 

 active ; if the muscular walls were inactive were they 

 rendered inactive by rigidity of contraction or by relax- 

 ation ? The third question bad relation to the blood : — 

 Had the blood undergone coagulation, and if it had not 

 at the time when the examination was made, how long a 

 time elapsed for the completion of the process? What was 

 the condition of the blood corpuscles ; were they scat- 

 tered or massed together, were they perfect in outline or 

 irregular ? What was the colour of the blood on the two 

 sides of the circulation ; was the venous blood darker 

 than the arterial, or were the two kinds of blood mixed in 

 respect to colour? Were any gases escaping from the 

 blood or had any escaped ? Had the fibrine escaped from 

 the other constituent parts ? Had the blood accumulated 

 in any of the vascular organs, or had it exuded from its 

 vessels in whole or in part? The fourth question related to 

 the state of the nervous organs, the brain and spinal cord : — 

 Were these organs congested or free of congestion ? Was 

 there any effusion of blood or of serum into them ? Was the 

 appearance of the white and grey matter natural or mor- 

 bid ? Were the membranes vascular or pale ? The sixth 

 question had relation to the state of the visceral organs 

 in the cavity of the abdomen : — Were the kidneys free of 

 congestion, or were they congested ? Was the colour of the 

 intestines natural ? Were the liver and spleen congested or 

 free of congestion ? The seventh question had regard to the 

 muscular system : — How long a period elapsed before the 

 muscles became spontaneously rigid ? After what modes 

 of death from the different agents did the muscles con- 

 tinue most active under the influence of the galvanic 

 current ? What sets of muscles first ceased to respond to 

 the current, the muscles of respiration or the muscles of 



