132 



NA TURE 



\Dec. 1 8, 1873 



The fourth number of the circulars of the U.S. Bureau of 

 Education for 1S73 contains a list of publications by the mem- 

 bers of certain college faculties and institutions of learning in the 

 United States from 1867 to 1873, and constitutes quite a valu- 

 able record of scientific activity during that time. We hope the 

 Bureau will continue such a publication yearly, and we only 

 wish there was any prospect of a similar undertaking in our own 

 country. 



We would draw attention to the efforts being made by the 

 Directors of the London Polytechnic Institution to give a scientific 

 character to part of the entertainment which they provide for the 

 public. Mr. E. V. Gardner is at present delivering tlie seventh 

 and eighth of a series of lectures descriptive of " Inventions and 

 Appliances Useful or Necessary to Everyday Life," the subjects 

 being "Sugar: from the Cane to the Teacup," and "The 

 Silber Light and Lightning." We wish the Directors of the 

 Polytechnic success in this attempt to make their institution ad- 

 minister to instruction as well as amusement. 



Mr. J. D. P.\I.\TER of Macclesfield sends us some very inte- 

 resting ornithological notes relative to East Cheshire, A short 

 time ago, a bird which had been hovering round the Grammar 

 School for si.x weeks, was brought him ; it had evidently been 

 killed by a violent blow with either a stick or a stone. Upon 

 examination it proved to be the Crested Lark {Alauda cristala), 

 which is a common bird thioughout the Continent of Europe, 

 but not a native of Britain. Indeed, it is a very rare visitor, 

 since only two or three instances are on record of its having been 

 met with in this country. Occasionally, the neighbourhood of 

 Macclesfield is resorted to by other strangers of the feathered 

 tribe. Some few weeks since the Black-headed Gull {Lanis 

 rUUlnindus) was shot in Swithamley Park, and previous to that, 

 on the same estate, the Common Buzzard (Buteo vidi^arts) had 

 been shot upon the Roaches. A few years further back 

 the Kuller [Corjcius gurni/ii), and a Hobby were killed 

 two cr three miles south of the town. In tempestuous 

 weather the Stormy Petrel or Mother Carty's Chicken has been 

 frequently picked up either dead or in an exhausted condition 

 near Macclesfield : and Teins are occasionally shot. The Siskin 

 is a winter visitor, some become victims to the bird-catchers, 

 and the Brambling, also a winter visitor, is now and then shot 

 or snared. Twenty-five years ago, that delightful songster the 

 Woodlark bred about Gawsworth, but in like manner it became 

 completely extinguished. The Grey or Wild Goose {Aitser 

 fans) and the Curlew (NiimeniKS arquata) came almost every 

 year to breed on Danes Moss, but when the North Staffordshire 

 Railway was carried across it these birds deserted it. Last year, 

 however, the Curlew returned and nested, but some boys took 

 the eggs when just upon the point of being hatched ; and this 

 y< ar the birds have not been seen in the neighbourhood. A 

 few Woodlarkshave likewise returned lately, and they will most 

 probably share the same fate as their predecessors, unless the 

 forthcoming amended Birds' Act be extended to them and also 

 to the Skylark, which have been most unaccountably omitted in 

 the Act now in force. A few years ago Mr. Painter gave a 

 lecture at the Town Hall upon the Geology, Archaeology, 

 Botany, Ornithology, and Zoology of Danes Moss and its 

 borders, when he mentioned some rare and beauitful bog plants. 

 &c. tba* grew upon it. In the course of a year or two nearly 

 the whole of them were rooted up and carried away, chiefly by 

 strangers. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 last week include a Zebu {Bos indicus) born in the Menagerie ; a 

 Greater White crested Cockatoo (Cacatua crislatd) from Mo. 

 luccas, presented by Mr. T. Towndrow ; a Squirrel Monkey 

 (Siiiiiians sciiin'a) from Guiana, presented by Mrs. Paget ; a 

 Parrot Crossbill (Loxia pilyopsittiuiis) and two common Cross- 

 bills (Z. curvirostni), European, purchased.] 



EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON WARM-BLOODED 

 ANIMALS * 



A FTER referring to what had already been done in reference 

 ■^ to this subject. Prof Binz gave an account of his and his 

 pupils' researches during the last years. They concerned espe- 

 cially two points (1) the influence of alcohol on the tempera- 

 ture of the blood, and (2) the causes of this influence. ., -J 



As in every powerful attack on our organism, so also in the 

 case of alcohol, the questions arise — In what quantities it 

 worked ? and whether the organism to be experimented on was 

 previously accustomed to its influence or not ? Taking into exact 

 consideration these two points, so often disregarded, the answer 

 is as follows : — The pretended heat of the organism does not 

 exist. The subjective impression is, at least partially, the conse- 

 quence of an irritation of the nerves of the stomach and of the 

 enlargement of the vessels arising in the skin. When given in 

 small doses the thermometer shows no extraordinary increase or 

 decrease of the temperature of the blood. Moderate doses, 

 which lead by no means to drunkenness, show a distinct decrease 

 of about half-an-hour duration or more; and inebriating 

 quantities evince a still more decided lowering of 3 to 5 F., 

 which lasts several hours. The decrease in the temperature after 

 moderate doses takes place most successfully in warm-blooded 

 animals, which have had for some time previously no alcohol 

 administered. When inured to it, the organism does not 

 answer on such doses by any measurable cooling or by the 

 reverse. 



Good results are yielded more easily by a feverish than by a 

 healthy animal. For these experiments strong guinea-pigs, 

 rabbits, or dogs of the same origin and of the same quality have 

 been used. Under their skin some cubic-centimeter of ichor or 

 putrifying blood was injected. After thus proceeding, the tem- 

 perature of the animal rises several degrees, and all the symptoms 

 appear which are to be observed in human beings suffering from 

 putrid fever. If the quality of the poisonous substance be right, 

 the animal expires in a few days. Not so, however, if, simul- 

 taneously with the ichor, alcohol diluted with water is adminis- 

 tered. The temperature then remains lower from the beginning, 

 and the one animal may be seen to die, whilst the other runs 

 about. The analysis of these experiments shows a threefold 

 action of alcohol in putrid fever — (i) the diminution of the 

 heat ; {2) reduction of the putrid processes ; and {3} rising of 

 the action of the nerves and of the heart. 



Prof. Binz then remarked on the causes of such antipyretic 

 action of alcohol. He pointed out several possibilities which here 

 may concur, and has proved by a series of experiments that two 

 of them really take place. It is the action of the heart, together 

 with the enlargement of the vessels of the skin, which allow a 

 stronger evolving of the blood at the surface of the body, and 

 then the moderating influence of alcohol on the chemical meta- 

 morphosis of tissues. All these results seem to be suggestive for 

 the use and abuse of alcohol in social life as well as in illnesses, 

 and they explain a great many empiric observations in both 

 departments. The paper of Prof Binz will be published at 

 length in one of the next numbers of J/iiinj'hrey's Journal of 

 Anatomv and PhysioL\^'. 



Dr. Brunton remarked that the performance of the vital func- 

 tions depended on oxidation of the tissues, and Professor Binz's 

 observation that this was lessened by alcohol was the key to an 

 explanation of its physiological effects. These may be nearly 

 all explained on the supposition that the power of the nervous 

 system is diminished, different parts of it becoming successively 

 paralysed. First, the vasomotor nerves become affected and the 

 blood-nerves consecjuently dilated. After a glass or two of wine, 

 the hands may be noticed to be of a very red colour and plump, 

 showing that arterial blood is flowing freely through the capil- 

 laries, and at the s.ame time the veins are dilated and full. All 

 the vessels of the body, however, are not dilated at the same 

 time. In some persons those of the stomach or intestines be- 

 come dilated, and the blood being thus .abstracted from the head 

 the brain becomes ancemic, .and the individual dull and sleepy. 

 In others the arteries of the head become dilated first, and in 

 consequence the brain receives a full supply of blood, and the 

 intellect becomes more vigorous. If this stage is not passed the 

 functions return to their normal condition, and no harm ensues, 

 but if more alcohol is taken the paralyis extends to other parts 

 of the nervous system. Sometimes the cerebral lobes, which are 

 the organs of the mental faculties, are first aft'ected, and some- 



* .\bslract of paper read at the Uriiish .-Issociaticn, BradforJ, by Prof. 

 B nz, of Boan, with Dr. Brunton's remarks. 



