a4 
| Sept. 8, 1870] 
NATURE é 
381 
authors state that, even in very dilute decoctions, it is very bitter, 
and appears to contain one or more alkaloids, since the aqueous 
decoction is largely precipitated by iodide of potassium, and also 
by phospho-molybdic acid. The poisonous effects of this sub- 
stance bear some similarity to the effects of brucia; but the 
authors state that, under certain conditions this poison does not 
hurt men, Some of the lower animals are readily killed by it ; 
a dose of three milligrammes of the alcoholic extract placed 
under the skin of a frog kills it ; and rabbits and dogs are killed 
by doses of from 15 to 25 centigrammes of the same extract 
introduced into the stomach. 
M. RovsiIL1e, Professor of Chemistry in the Agricultural 
School of Saulsaie, describes a remarkable phenomenon wit- 
nessed by him on Mons Pilatus, at sunrise on July 19th. The 
air was foggy, the temperature 10°5° C., the barometer 647 mm., 
the altitude above the sea being 1288 metres. Whitish clouds 
appeared to forma crest to the mountain, the wind was light 
from the east, the sun at first very pale, obscured by a light 
cloud; but suddenly the sky appeared as if on fire, and at 
the same time the shadow of the mountain was projected on 
the horizon, at the same time that the image of the sun was re- 
flected in the clouds to the west, surmounted by two rainbows, 
one above the other, and separated by a grayish band. The 
image of the sun was orange; the two rainbows which sur- 
- mounted it consisted of two colours only, red and orange mingled 
together, and placed symmetrically in each of the rainbows with 
respect to the separating gray band. The upper bow was 
paler than the lower one. In proportionas the clouds approached 
the spectators, the image of the sun increased. At the same 
time that the rainbows became larger, some black lines became 
more and more clear, and were soon easily recognised as the 
shadows of the spectators. As the clouds advanced, the phe- 
nomenon disappeared three or four seconds before the spectators 
were enveloped in them; but the clouds again disappearing, 
the phenomenon was repeated three times successively in the 
space of eighteen minutes. The phenomenon appears to have 
been of the same nature as the well-known Spectre of the 
Brocken in the Hartz Mountains. 
THE second part of Vol. I. of the Natural History Transac- 
tions of Northumberland and Durham has just been issued. 
The following are the most important papers contained in it :— 
A list of Freshwater Algze collected in Northumberland and 
Durham (excluding Diatomaceze and Desmidiz) by Mr. G. S. 
Brady. Ona new Labyrinthodont Amphibian from the North- 
umberland coal field ; and on the occurrence in the same locality 
of Anthracosaurus Russelli, by Albany Hancock. The new 
Labyrinthodont, obtained from the Low Main seam of the New- 
sham colliery is a small species of Huxley’s genus Urocordylus, 
and the name proposed is U. ve@iculatus, expressive of the reti- 
culated structure of the surface of the cranial bones. On some 
curious fossil fungi from the Black Shale of the Northumberland 
coal field, by A. Hancock and T. Atthey (illustrated). The 
same authors contribute two papers (also illustrated) on the 
genera of fossil fishes Climaxodus and Fanassa. Notes on the 
Entomostraca of Northumberland and Durham, by Mr. G. S. 
Brady (illustrated). The Meteorological and Climatological Re- 
ports for 1869, by the Rey. R. F. Wheeler, occupy a consider- 
able portion of the volume, and are illustrated by tables and 
some very curious and interesting drawings of the solid residue 
left on evaporating rain-water, which fell in London, on the 
Clyde, at Manchester, and at Newcastle. The volume closes 
with the annual address to the members of the Tyneside 
Naturalists’ Field Club, by the President, Rev. R. F. Wheeler. 
Dr. W. F. R. SurinGAR has contributed to the Annals of 
the Botanical Museum of Leyden a monoyraph of the Algze of 
Japan, chiefly those collected by Von Siebold. The illustrations, 
both of the Diatomaceze and the Sea-weeds, are of extreme 
beauty. 
Proressor HALrorp, of the University of Melbourne, in a 
paper read before the Medical Society of Victoria, has reviewed 
at length the history of twenty cases of snake-bite treated by his 
method of injecting liquor ammoniz into the veins during the 
last eighteen months. These cases were all in the hands ot 
different practitioners in the colony, who have each reported on 
them. Recovery followed in seventeen cases. In thirteen of 
these the practitioners in attendance expressly. report that the 
patients were in a dying condition, and, in their belief, would 
soon have died, but for the employment of this remedy in the 
manner prescribed. The method employed was that in- 
troduced by Dr, Halford, and first brought to the know- 
ledge of the profession here by him, in the pages of the 
British Medical Fournal, through Mr, Paget; viz. by inject- 
ing dilute ammonia—say, at the least, * thirty minims of 
the liquor ammonize B, P., specific gravity 959—into a super- 
ficial vein ; the vein being first exposed, and its coats pierced 
with the nozzle of a hypodermic syringe. Dr. Dempster, Dr. 
Rae, Dr, Langford, Mr, Dallimore, and Dr. Meyler, each in 
his own words, and from the observation of separate cases, de- 
scribe the curative effect as being immediate, and the recovery 
from collapse to be so rapid and startling as to be “almost 
magical.” This method of treatment, of which such remark- 
able effects are detailed, has been sharply criticised ; but Prof. 
Halford successfully vindicates the claim of the snakes to Le 
considered highly venomous—almost as much so, he intimates, 
as some of his London critics. They included the tiger-snake, 
the brown and black snake of Australia, which are affirmed to 
be as deadly as the cobra and rattle-snake of India. Strong 
testimony to the efficacy of the treatment in saving life was 
borne by Australian practitioners who took part in the discussion, 
and vindicated Prof. Halford’s claim to be considered as the 
discoverer of a means of rescuing many from an otherwise in- 
evitable death. 
A VALUABLE addition to scientific literature has been lately 
published in Boston, viz. ; ‘‘ Alaska and its Resources,” by Mr, 
W. H. Dall, the director of the Scientific Corps of the late 
Western Union Telegraph Expedition. This work throws 
much light upon the flora and fauna of this little visited and 
comparatively unknown portion of America, lately acquired by 
the United States Government. 
F. MUuLuausen, ciyil engineer of Buiunswick, has in- 
vented, according to the British Medical Fournal, a new 
freezing and ventilating machine of remarkable ingenuity. 
The cold is produced by the mechanical expansion of 
atmospheric air. It produces, when in operation, any desired 
degree of cold, freezes water without the use of any chemical 
agents, and will effectually cool and ventilate any apart- 
ment or building, on whatever scale, large or small. In 
hospitals, especially in tropical climates, where the production 
of ice and the cooling of the air are often matters of great 
urgency, and always of great value, in theatres and workshops, 
and in our new Indian barracks, such a machine will be of 
infinite value: The London theatres can hardly afford to be 
without it. The labour of one man, with a small 5-horse motor 
power machine, will produce r1oolb. of ice an hour, and cool 
15,000 cubic feet of air from 30° to 50° below Reaumur (s7e in 
&.M.F.) The production of pure ice, for the purpose of cooling 
our drinking-water and furnishing a cheap mode of replenishing 
our domestic refrigerating safes during the hot season, will be a 
great addition to the sum of comfort in London life, Cheap ice 
will be especially a great boon to the hospital and sick-room ; 
nothing is so refreshing for the parched lips of the sick man. If 
it were not so costly as it now is, ice would be very largely usec 
in all hospitals, and would be an infinite boon to the sick. 
