Feb. 12, 1874] 



NATURE 



29« 



complete recovery has yet occurred. The doubt still remains 

 whether the nervous system that has sustained so much damage, 

 is capable of ever resuming its functions, even though elimination 

 be comulcte. 



The so-called antidotes appear to be inert ; all that have been 

 snl>initted to trial, including the intra-venous injection of am- 

 monia, have failed to have any satis'a.-tory effect. Artilictal 

 respiration has certainly prolonged life, and partial recovery has 

 followed, but no life has actually been saved by it. 



The microscopic appearances of the blood are described, but 

 no very remarkable change was observed beyond crr-nition of 

 the corpuscles or diminished aggregation into rouleaux. Che- 

 mical examination of the blood and its gases is still needed and 

 further analysis ot the poison is desirable. 



It is shown that the activity of the poison is scarcely impaired 

 by drying, excepting 1 erhaps so far as regards its /?<■«/ action. 



Dilution with water, glycerine, liq. ammonia', and liq. potass^ 

 did not destroy its activity, nor did coagulation by boding in the 

 ordinary way. The boiling for half-an-hour under a temprra- 

 ture of 102° C. seemed to destroy the activity of one specimen 

 which was iiijected into a bird. 



The poison acts on all life, on the lower and higher vertebrata, 

 the invertebrata, and even on vegetable life ; for it retards, al- 

 though it may not arrest the germination of seeds. But it acts 

 most vigorously on the warm-blooded animals. 



The most remarkable fact connected with it is that it has 

 little or no effect on poisonous snakes. They can neither poison 

 themselves nor their congeners ; or if at all, very slightly so, 

 whilst the poison acts rapidly and fatally on innocent snakes, 

 lizards, fish, and mollusca. 



With reference to the means of preventing death, it may be 

 said that those that mechanically prevent the entry of the poison 

 into the circulation by theans of the ligature, excision, or cautery 

 are the most reliable, but that they are only so when applied im- 

 mediately. 



No means that offer any hope of benefit should be neglected, 

 and it is possible that stimulants such as alcohol and ammonia 

 may be useful ; and in some cases, where the poisoning has been 

 severe but not fatal, do good and even determine recovery where 

 death would have otherwise resulted. The so-called antidotes, 

 however, beyond any actions of this kind that they may possess, 

 are apparently quite inert. 



Transfusion of blood is alluded to, but the experiments 

 hitherto proposed have not met with success. A more perfect 

 way of accomplishing it may be more successful. 



Zoological Society, Feb. 3. — Dr. E. Hamilton, vice-presi- 

 dent, in the chair. The secretary read a report on the additions 

 that had been made to the society's menagerie during the month 

 of January, 1874, amongst which were specially noticed a female 

 Water-Deer (Hydropotcs incrmis), a pair of Pink-headed Ducks 

 (Anas caryophyllai-ea], and a Dusky Monkey (Semnopithecus 

 obiciints), acquired by purchase, and two Vulturine Guinea-fowls 

 {A'liinida viiUnrina), presented by Dr. J. Kirk. — An extract was 

 read from a letter addressed to the secretary by Mr. Luigi M. L. 

 Alberlis, containing an account of a new species of kangaroo, of 

 which he had lately obtained a living specimen from New Guinea, 

 and which he had proposed to call Halmaturus liictuosiis. — Dr. 

 Cobbold communicated the second part of a series of papers 

 entitled " Notes on the Entozoa ; " being observations based on 

 the examination of rare or otherwise v.aluable specimens contri- 

 buted at intervals by Messrs. Charles Darwin, Robert Swinhoe, 

 Charles W. Devis, the late Dr. W. C. Pechey, Dr. Murie, antl 

 others. — Mr. Garrod read a paper,in which heproposed a newclas- 

 sification of birds, details of which will he.found in another page. 



Chemical Society, Feb. 5.— Prof. Odling, F.H.S., presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The secretary read a preliminary notice on 

 the action of benzyl chloride on the camphor of the Laur.icea; 

 [Laurus camp/iora), by Dr. D. Tommasi — Dr. C. R. A. Wright 

 had a paper on the Isomeric Terpenes and their derivatives : 

 Part III. On the essential oils of wormwood and citronelle ; 

 being a detailed account of his experiments on these substances, 

 a preliminary notice of which was communicated to the society 

 some time since. — The other communications were a preliminary 

 notice on the perbromates, by M. M. Pattison Muir, F. R. S. E. ; 

 and on the coals from Cape Breton, their cokes and ashes, with 

 some comparative analyses, by Henry How, D.C.L. The latter 

 paper giving the amount of coke produced by slow and quick 

 coking, from the main seam coal of Sydney mine. Nova Scotia, 

 and the Lingan coal, also analyses of the ashes left by these 

 coals. 



Royal Microscopical Society, Feb. 4. —Anniversary 

 meeting.— C has. Brooke, F.R.S., president, in the chair. The 

 report of the council and the treasurer's statement of accounts 

 were submitted and adopted, and the officers and council for the 

 ensuing year were elected. The president Othvercd an address, 

 and concluded with obituary notice of Fellows deceased since the 

 last annual meeting. The following gentlemen were elected as 

 ofiftcers and council. President — Chas. Brooke. F.R.S. Vice- 

 Presidents— Dr. Braithwaite, F.L.S. ; J. Miihir, F.L.S. • 

 W. Kitchen Parker, F R.S. ; F. H. Wenham, C E. Treasurer 

 — J. Ware Stephenson, F.R.A.S. Secretaries— H. J. Slack, 

 F.G.S. ; C. Stewart F.L.S. Council— J. Bell, F.C.S. ; F. 

 Crisp, B.A. ; Dr. W. J. Gray ; J. E. Ingpen ; S. J. Mclntire, 

 H. Lee, F.L.S.; W. T. Loy ; Dr. H. Lawson ; H. Pcrigal, 

 F.R.A.S.; A. Sanders; C. Tyler, F.L.S.; T. C. White. 

 Assistant Secretary — Walter W. Reeves. 



Royal Horticultural Society, Jan. 21. — Scientific Com- 

 mittee. — A.. Smee, F. R. S., in the chair.— The Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley sent portions of holly stems pierced by the larva of the 

 wood leopard moth (Zciizeia ALscuH). — Prof. Thise ton Djer ex- 

 hibited a small branch of Vitis gotigylodcs from tuc Victoria 

 House at Kew. The end appeared to have been broken off, 

 and the adjacent internodes had (apparently in consequence) 

 swollen into a mass like a small cucurbitaceous fruit. — Prof. 

 Lawson remarked that an Indian vine ( Vitis qu.idrangulans) 

 ordinarily had the internodes swollen, though not to any- 

 thing like the same extent. — A conversation then arose as to 

 the production of aerial roots by vines. — Mr. Worthington Smith, 

 F. L. S. , detailed the results of a series of experiments made 

 W'ith the object of ascertaining how far perfectly sound potatoes 

 can be contaminated by contact with infected ones. — Mr. Andrew 

 Murr.ay, F.L.S., made some remarks on interesting plants suit- 

 able for horticulture which he had met with in the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



General Meeting. — Mr. W. A. Lindsay, secretary, in the 

 chair. — Prof. Thiselton Dyer made some remarks on a parasitic 

 fungus, which was proving exceedingly destructive to hollyhocks. 

 It has been identified by Berkeley in this country, and subse- 

 quently by Durieu de Maisonneuve, in France as Pnccinia Alal- 

 vacearuiii of Montagne ; it was first described from specimens 

 collected in Chili by Bertero. 



Edinburgh 

 Geological Society, Dec. iS, 1873. — Un some points in the 

 connection between Metamorphism and Volcanic action, by Prof. 

 Geikie, president. After adverting to his previously published 

 views regarding the connection between the protrusion of granite 

 and ordinary volcanic rocks, the author proceeded to point out 

 that the facts were probably capable of a wider interpretation. 

 The metamorphism of large areas was well known to be 

 intimately related to the contortion and plication of rocks, 

 highly metamorphosed regions being those where the rocks had 

 undergone the most intense pressure and crumpling. Heat 

 would necessarily be evolved in the process of compre^sion, and 

 might have been in some parts sufficient actually to fuse the 

 rocks. Such fused portions were probably recognisable in the 

 masses of granite, syenite, porphyry, and other so-called igneous 

 rocks so common in metamorphosed regions. These views were 

 shared by many able geologists of the present day. Tne author, 

 referring to the recent memoir of Mr. Mallet, pointed out that 

 such conditions as those indicated by the facts of metamorphism 

 were eminently suggestive of the probability that volcanic action 

 had accompanied metamorphism. The extensive crumpling of 

 the rocks of a region indicates a weak part of the crust of the 

 earth through which the internal heat would for a time be 

 more easily transmitted to the surface, while the effect of that 

 crumpling would be greatly to increase the store of heat out of 

 which volcanic energy arises. Hence both by the access given along 

 the line of weakne^s to the internal heated mass of the earth, and 

 by the increased temperature due to the contortion, water find- 

 ing its way downward from the surface would encounter condi- 

 tions eminently favourable for the production of volcanoes. If 

 this speculation has any ground of truth, we should expect to 

 find some evidence of the association of volcanic masses with 

 wide tracts of metamorphism. Without travelling beyond our 

 own country, we seem to have corroboration of it all along the 

 flanks of the highly-contorted, and, over the Higijlands, in- 

 tensely-metamorphosed Silurian lulls. The author then gave 

 some details as to the probable thickness of rock under which 

 the present metamorphosed rocks of the Highlands lay at the 



