oe 
April 24, 1873] 
_ NATU. 
48t 
jects on the time after death, or rather after the last respira- 
tion to show that contraction of the muscles could still be 
induced by electricity, when applied to them either in the 
form of the interrupted or of the continuous current. The 
excitability of the muscles appears to be the same as 
before death, for a short time after death has taken place ; 
then contractility departing rather sooner in chronic 
disease than in cases where death has been occasioned 
by an accident or other sudden event. In most cases 
contractions may be excited for from 14 hour to 3 hours 
after death. The reaction to induced currents falls in a 
centrifugal direction; the sphincter palpebrarum retain- 
ing its irritability longest. From these experiments he 
was led to think that the absence of irritability in the 
muscles might be taken as a good means of distinguish- 
ing between real and apparent death, and accidentally 
very shortly afterwards a case of apparent death in an 
hysterical patient permitted him to satisfy himself as well 
as others of its value. 
5. C. Heitzmann gives the results of his researches on 
healthy and inflamed bone, and agrees with Rokitansky, 
that blood is formed in the mother shells that under cer- 
tain conditions appear in bone. : 
Other physiological papers are, one by Prof. Bizzozero, 
of Pavia, on the so-called endogenous formation of cells. 
Another by Dr. Kolisko, on the mechanics of the heart, 
and another by Schiff on the round ligament. The 
papers dealing with therapeutics, are (1) an essay by 
Dr. Basch on the action of nicotin, especially bearing 
on the question of the relation of the blood pressure to 
the periods of rest and contraction of the muscular tissue 
of the intestines ; (2) a number of minor communications 
from Schroff containing the results of investigations made 
in the Vienna Pharmacological Institution. The patho- 
logical papers of most importance are (1) the remarkable 
essay of Lostorfer which has led to so much discussion in 
Germany, in which he declared that he was able to 
diagnose a certain specific disease (syphilis), by a micro- 
scopic examination of the blood ; (2) an.account by Dr. 
Philipp Knoll of a case of the rare disease termed para- 
lysis pseudo-hypertrophica ; (3) an essay by Dr. J. Popoff 
on pneumomycosis ; (4) investigations on the organisation 
of thrombus by Dr. Durante ; (5) on the changes taking 
place in ligatured vessels by Dr. Dudokaloff; (6) the 
diagnosis of disease of the optic thalami. Besides these 
are seversl others. The plates are very fairly executed, 
and our readers will see that Prof. Stricker has done good 
service in publishing these’ papers and essays in a col- 
lected form, He: 
LETTERS TO THE EDITVUR 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. } 
Reflected and Transmitted Light 
[The following correspondence has been sent us by Prof. 
Tyndall] :— 
Cliff House, Greenhithe, April 8 
A curious thing in connection with colour having come 
under my notice, and never having before seen it remarked in 
any scientific journal, I take the liberty of bringing it before your 
notice ; if it is new to you it will inrerest you, if not I must ask 
you. to excuse me for troubling you. On looking through 
a piece of blue glass (of which I forward you a sample) 
at a plant or tree Lt up by the sun, those leaves that are lit from 
behind, or rather by transmitted light, appear of a rick crimson, the 
other leaves, seen only by reflected light, merely taxe the colour 
given by the glass. In the case of a geranium plant, those 
leaves become almost the same colour as the flowers. As a sci- 
eutific fact, if new, itis curious. 
To Prof. Tyndall WALTER B, WoopBuRY 
THE observation you describe is interesting, and if you have 
taken care to exclude subjective colouring, is, I should think, to 
be explained in this way. 
RE 
The light from your leaves contains a quantity of red: it 
Fle as a yellowish green, I suppose, and contains little or no 
ue. 
Your glass is of a kind which transmits the two ends of the 
spectrum while cutting out its centre. It is very hostile to the 
yellow, hence, on placing it before the eye, and receiving through 
it light which has already been deprived of its blue, the glass 
quenches the yellow, and red alone remains. 
April 9 JOHN TYNDALL 
I detained this note until the arrival of sunshine, which 
enables me to say that the explanation here given is correct. 
Employing a blue medium, which does not transmit red you get 
no effect of the kind you describe. The tender leaves of spring 
are best suited for the experiment: the hard green leaves of ivy, 
for example, do not produce the effect. 
It is not necessary, nor indeed desirable, to have the leaves 
between the eye and the sun. 
April 15 
The Zoological Collections in the India House 
PERMIT me to offer my testimony in general support of the 
view taken by P.L.S., in the ablearticle which appeared in your 
last number. Rather more than a year ago it was a matter of 
importance for me to examine the type of Horsfield’s Turdus 
varius, contained in the Museum of the Old East India Company. 
I applied in the proper quarter for leave to examine the speci- 
men, but received a polite answer informing me that it was 
inaccessible. The official statement therefore said to have been » 
made in the House of Commons on March 14, 1871, by the~ 
Under-Secretary of State for India, as to the collections being 
still ‘‘available to men of science” is untrue, and I trust 
that some member of Parliament will not allow this subject 
to be lost sight of, but, by continually recurring to it, compel the 
Administration to open their valuable Museum to the public— 
ils owners. To the two solutions of the difficulty suggested by 
P.L.S., allow me to add a third. If neither the authorities at 
South Kensington nor in Great Russell Street can properly exhibit 
the East India Museum, let it be transferred (of course under 
suitable guarante+), to some other National Institution. 
Cambridge, April 22 ALFRED NEWTON 
On the Affinities of Dinoceras and its Allies 
In the April number of the American Yournal of Science 
and Art there isa paper by Prof. O. C. Marsh, entitled ‘* Addi- 
tional Observations on Dinocerata,” in which we learn that 
Dinoceras has only four toes. The author still continues to 
consider the genzra Dinoceras and Tinoceras a separate order 
intermediate between the Proboscidia and the Perissodactylata. 
The tacts at my disposal are now sufficient for me to state with 
considerable certainty tht Dinoceras and Tinoceras are members 
of the Ungulata Artiodactylata. The following are my 
reasons :— 
1. The palate is complete between the posterior molars, as-is 
seen clearly ina photograph of Zinoceras grandis (Loxolophodon 
cornutus Cope) in my possession, 
2. There is no third trochanter to the femur (Marsh). 
3. The astragalus has a well-marked cuboid facet (Marsh). 
4. The posterior molar has a small but well developed third 
cusp, as proved conclusively by an inspection of my photo- 
raph. 
‘ Fi The anterior premolar is wanting, six only being present. 
6. The premaxillz are edentuldus. 
7. There are four toes, an even number. 
A. H, Garrop 
11, Harley Street, April 22 
Auroral Display 
A sHor? but very brilliant display of aurora was visible here 
this evening, making its first appearance soon after sunset, and 
reaching its greatest intensity betwetn nine and ten o’clock. 
Some notes of its phases which I was able to make in a perfectly 
clear sky will perhaps afford useful comparisons with descriptions 
furnished by observers of its appearance at other places. 
The sun had set behind cirrus clouds, surrounded by a slight 
halo, and with a faint mock--un on its northern side. As dark- 
ness approached, the hazy clouds in the no:th-west were sur- 
mounted by a faint light, and at half-past eight o’clock luminous 
streaks here and there across the otherwise clear sky, apparently 
