106G Traxsactioxs of the American Institute. 



high vahie, because it is a sure-footed beast of burden, and the 

 female yields a rich milk, the butter from which has become quite 

 an article of merchandise. The hair is made into ropes and cloth, 

 and its skin is converted into clothing. The bushy tail is extensively 

 used in India as a brush. Its horns curve outward from the occi- 

 pital ridge, and are sometimes as white as ivory. The meat of the 

 yak has a flavor somewhat resembling that of venison, which is not 

 diminished by domestication and acclimatization. The wild yak of 

 Thibet is found near the snow line of the mountains, and it is not 

 improbable that this animal would be found of great use if intro- 

 duced into the mountain regions of the western part of the United 

 States.- The domestic animal is generally about four feet high and 

 seven feet long. 



Carbolic Acid as a Therapeutic Agent. 

 Joseph Hirsh, in a paper recently read before the Chicago College 

 of Pharmacy, gives an account of a series of experiments made by 

 him, showing the power of carbolic acid to coagulate albumen, and 

 adds some remarks upon the eflect of this acid on the human system, 

 the importance of which can hardly be over estimated. The applica- 

 tion of a concentrated solution of the acid to the skin produced in a 

 short time a white oj^aque spot of horny aspect, which soon peeled 

 off. The same spot, produced on highly sensitive part of the epider- 

 mis, as on the tongue, at once loses its sensitiveness, and a feeling as 

 of the presence of a foreign body as a coating is experienced. In 

 both cases the opacity of the spot, by its resemblance to the opaque 

 coagulated albumen, at once reveals the nature of the change pro- 

 duced by the acid. The albumen of the blood, which, through tlie 

 numberless ramifications of the blood-vessels, is carried to the skin 

 for its nourishment, becomes, coagulated. In this state it is solid, 

 precluding the motion of liquids of its own kind within its substance, 

 and with this motion, nourishment and life. As lifeless, dead matter, 

 the skin must necessarily peel off ; it must, with the loss of vitality, 

 be deprived of all prerogatives of life and feeling, as noticed above. 

 Taking the coagulation of albumen as the immediate effect of apply- 

 ing carbolic acid to any organic substance, we shall find no difficulty 

 in explaining the suspension of life without its complete extinction 

 in the microscopical beings known as contagion. 



They contain, no matter whether they are animalculie or minute 

 plants (a question not definitely settled), albumen; blood albumen 



