

Dec. 29, 1870] 
NATURE 
173 

Dr. BuCHANAN, the Professor of Physiology in the University 
of Glasgow, has just published the third part of his ‘¢ Essays on 
the Forces that carry on the Circulation of the Blood.” The 
present part is engaged with the consideration of the Pneumatic 
Forces. He is of opinion that the ordinary acts of respiration 
powerfully influence the current of blood in its passage through 
the whole vascular system. In proof of this he adduces the 
collapse of the large veins of the neck observed during inspi- 
ration, and the fulness during expiration, the former of which 
phenomena he attributes to the tendency to a yacuum existing in 
the chest, and the pressure of the external air which empties the 
great veins of their blood and forces it into the chest ; whilst the 
latter he considers to be due to the fact that, after the termina- 
tion of an inspiration, no more blood, or very little, enters the 
chest till the beginning of the next inspiration, and the con- 
sequence is that the blood propelled onward by the force of the 
heart accumulates in the veins near the chest to an extent pro- 
portionate to the length of the interval, Again, in order to 
show that the influence of the respiration extends to the arterial 
system, he refers finally to the united testimony of all physio- 
logists, who are agreed that the pulse is less voluminous and 
feebler during inspiration, whilst it recovers its volume and 
strength during expiration and the period of repose; and, 
secondly, to the movements of the brain when exposed by removal 
of the part of theskull. Dr. Buchanan draws attention also to the 
oscillations of the hzemastatic column observed by Hales, which 
are clearly associated with the respiratory acts; to the pheno- 
mena of asphyxia, and those of the foetal circulation; the 
difficulty respecting the latter he ingeniously turns in his favour, 
by maintaining that, inasmuch as no movements of respiration 
take place here, the absence of this help to the circulation is 
supplied by the free communication existing between the right 
and left sides of the heart, whereby both ventricles are able to 
exert their influence in maintaining the system in circulation. 
THE valuable museum at Brighton is being utilised by the 
delivery of conversational lectures in the geological, entomologi- 
cal, antiquarian, economical, and sanitary departments. The 
object is to explain the specimens, and we learn from the Brighton 
Lxaminer that the plan has been well carried out and has proved 
very attractive. 
Gustav Roser, one of the veterans of German geology, 
celebrated the 50th anniversary of his doctorate on the 9th inst., 
when the learned societies of Berlin sent delegates to offer him 
their good wishes and congratulations. 
THE British Medical Fournal prints the following as an ap- 
propriate pendant to the condemnation of tobacco by Kerckrin. 
gius, cited in our issue for December 8, by John Allen, M.D., 
F.R.S., on the Evils of Alcohol (Synopsis Universe Medicine 
Practice, Amstelodami, MDCCXXX, cap. xvi.) ‘‘ There remains 
another sort of poisons, such as vinous spirits and intoxicating 
distilled liquors. The frequent and excessive tippling of these, 
as is the practice of each returning day, hath destroyed myriads 
of mortals, nay, hundreds of thousands more than all the poisons 
put together ; whence I am wont to style this most pernicious 
evil emphatically THE HARM. It proves not only the parent of 
very many, and those the worst of diseases, but to numbers sud- 
denly fatal ; upon which accounts, ifit deserve not the appellation 
of poison, I must confess I know not what does. Spirit of wine, 
taken inwardly, is death to almost all creatures ; to vegetables of 
all denominations without exception, when applied by way of 
pabulum, even to the parent vine, whence itself is derived. The 
generous physician hath an unpleasant task upon his hands. Men 
addicted to these spirituous liquors abominably sacrifice day, 
night, and themselves, to continually sipping, as it were, a liquid 
fire. When all digestion is lost, the solids unbraced, the juices 



corrupted ; when the human fabric, which hath been long totter- 
ing, is just falling to the ground—then are we called in to its 
support. Whatmust wedo? Eyenas town-scavengers (scabinz) ; 
and ten to one but, after all the abandoned sot returns at 
once, like a sow that is washed, to wallowing in the mire. 
Thus he irrevocably prostitutes his health to the last, being 
prodigal of that life of which he ought to be most 
tender ; and his early end is the consequence of intemperance. 
What advantageth then the doctor, and what the divine? 
Fruitless would be the endeavours even of a Luke himself in 
both his capacities, either as physician or as evangelist. Deaf 
asa rock to all counsel or persuasion, he runs into the very 
arms of death, and courts destruction. To this he is prompted 
by an eternal thirst, which he greedily indulges; and the greater 
the indulgence, the greater the thirst—the thirst of those per- 
nicious distilled liquors, with which the tragic scene is ex- 
peditiously closed; and the dismal catastrophe, in the last 
moments, is the finishing both his bottle and himself.” 
A CORRESPONDENT in Honolulu, after making a botanical 
tour in the Kaala range, says, ‘‘ Botanising on this island is not 
without considerable danger. Only imagine descending a steep 
decline of 70°, which had to be done chiefly by swinging from 
the roots of one tree to the branches of the next one below, 
and that at a height of 2,000 feet above the deep gorge beneath 
our feet.” Nature, however, seems in all cases to provide a 
reward for her admirers, who voluntarily expose themselves to 
such dangers for the purpose of bringing to the eye of science 
her numerous hidden beauties, for the writer continues to say, 
he was not a little surprised by the discovery of a violet with 
splendid snow-white waxy flowers, some of which were almost 
half an inch in diameter and exquisitely perfumed. He considers 
it probably a variety of Viola chamissoniana, which he found in 
its ordinary state lower down in the forest ; but the pure white 
flowers stretching out their long peduncles above the surrounding 
low undergrowth, and luxuriating in the full sunshine of an azure 
blue sky, far exceed in beauty those of V. chamissoniana, which 
are of the ordinary violet colour. 
From the notes of a short tour through the eastern parts of 
the provinces of Echigo, Iwashiro, and Uzen, made in June and 
July of the present year by one of H.M. Consuls in Japan, we 
extract the following :—‘“‘ In passing through Yazawa and some 
other villages, we found hemp, said to be of good quality, grown 
in frequent, localities on the way, and vegetable wax trees in 
abundance. I was informed at Tsugawa that the extraction of 
lacquer from the same tree is prohibited there, the tree being 
reserved for the production of wax. As the lacquer is obtained by 
making incisions in the bark of the tree while young, the result of 
which is the death of the tree before coming to full maturity, both 
products can hardly be obtained from the same tree. This appears 
to be the reason for the prohibition, At Yonezawa, on the other 
hand, the extraction of lacquer from the tree is permitted, the result 
of which is, that little vegetable wax is produced there. I observed 
that many of the trees in the neighbourhood of Tsugawa had 
been injured, apparently, by the severity of last winter.” The 
trees here alluded to are those belonging to the genus Riws. The 
most important wax-producing species in Japan being 2. suc- 
cedanea L., the bulk of the varnish being yielded by 2. vernict- 
fera Dec. The wax is obtained from the small fruits, while the 
varnish is procured by tapping the trees. The species met with 
at Tsugawa must have been 2. succedanea, as this species yields 
both wax and varnish. Several other species also yield var- 
nish more or less in China and Japan. Little is known about 
the preparations of this varnish as used in the ancient lacquer 
work of the Japanese ; and it is said that the modern workers 
in this article in Japan have themselves lost the secret of its 
preparation. 
