EXTRACTS AND ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 149 



when we take into consideration that a microscope is not always at 

 hand, and that every body is not familiar with difficult and complicated 

 chemical manipulations. 



When the brainy matter of the sheep or calf is added, either directly 

 to the milk, or in emulsion with water in the proportion of 5 per cent the 

 physical properties of the milk, its odour, savour, colour and density, are 

 not so notably altered as to allow the adulteration to be at once per- 

 ceived, and which is therefore happily without danger as respects the 

 animal economy. But seen by the aid of a good microscope, under an 

 amplification of from 300 to 500 diameter, fragments of tubes, of torn 

 rugose membrane, sometimes even sanguiferous vessels are observed by 

 the side of the ordinary milk globules, the former being very different 

 from the yellowish amorphous masses presented by milk after it has 

 been boiled, or from that which is mingled with colostrum shortly after 

 an animal has given birth. 



Nevertheless it must be owned that these characters are not always 

 so evident, and further the illusions which the microscope presents to 

 those not very familiar with its employment are so frequent, that ob- 

 servers may be very easily led into error. We therefore prefer having 

 recourse to a method founded on the property which the oleo phos- 

 phoric acid possesses, and which as shown by Fremy exists in the 

 brain of changing under the influence of acidulated water, into oleine 

 and phosphoric acid. 



[From the Pharmaceutical Journal.] 



Pereira on the Structure of Amylaceous Matters. Several feculent 

 amylaceous or starchy substances are extensively used as food and me- 

 dicine, and for other purposes. In commerce the cheaper are sometimes 

 substituted for the more costly kinds, but the microscope offers a ready 

 means of distinguishing the fraud. Particles of starch are organized 

 substances. Their size is subject to considerable variation. The tous 

 les mois obtained from a species of Canna has the largest sized particles ; 

 the Portland arrow-root from Arum maculatum, a very small particle. 

 The shapes are also different ; some are circular as wheat starch ; others 

 are elliptical or ovate as tous les mois ; some are mullar shaped as Tapiti 

 arrow-root, Brazilian arrow-root, and Tapioca. All have on some part of 

 their surface a small circular spot called the hilum, and present an ap- 

 pearance of rings or rugce, which depend on the concentric layers of 

 which each grain is composed. 



[From the Comptes Rendus, 1842.] 



Grubys Anatomical Researches on a Cryytogamic plant constituting the 

 true Muguet* of Children. The greater number of pathologists consi- 

 der the pseudo-membranous production in muguet a consequence on idio- 



* Muguet a pellicular disease occurring in the mouths of children. 



