Miscellanies. 209 



It is very difficult to ascertain the causes of the color of flowers ; 

 for it often happens that the same stem and the same branch give 

 different colors. The same plant entirely changes its color some- 

 times from one year to another ; but this takes place only with the 

 purple, brown and amaranthine colors; they have a tendency to clear- 

 er shades, that it is to say, to return to their primitive color, the pur- 

 ple violet. 



What horticulturists call degradation is only an effort of nature to 

 bring back the plant to its primitive type. — Bib. Univ. Mars, 1832. 



MEDICINE. 



Use of milk in dropsy. — A memoir on the use of milk in ascites, 

 by Dr. Chrestien, of Montpelier, was presented to the Academy of 

 Sciences, by M. Legrand, on the first of October. Its diuretic 

 qualities, when used unboiled, as the only drink and aliment, have 

 been established by the author. Since the publication of the me- 

 moir, M. Legrand has prescribed milk in two cases of hydropsy- 

 ascites, symptomatic of an affection of the heart, one of which was 

 a complication of hydrothorax and hydropericardium. It succeeded 

 in emptying entirely, by the urine, both the breast and the abdomen, 

 and in dissipating the general aedema, when all the imaginable diu- 

 retics had been administered in vain. M. Legrand has been equally 

 successful in curing a general oedema in two individuals, which super- 

 vened, during their convalescence from a serious attack of cholera, 

 by prescribing several cups of unboiled milk in the morning, fasting. 

 Doctor Kapeler, physician in chief of the hospital St. Antoine, has 

 also completely dissipated, by the same means, the dropsy of a pa- 

 tient resulting from chronic inflammation of the intestines, who, in 

 this pathological condition, was unable to support any known diuretic 

 medicament. — Rev. Encyc. Oct. 1832. 



STATISTICS. 



1. The Savings Bank of Geneva had, on the 31st of December, 

 1831, a deposit of 1,940,000 francs in the name of 5,583 deposit-, 

 ors. The population of the town is 23,000, hence it appears that 

 one fourth of the inhabitants were contributors to this fund. The 

 city of Lyons, with a population of 150,000 had received in its Bank 

 of Savings from 1823 to 1830, only 1,872,822 francs, and of this 

 there remained on the 31st of December, 1830, but 439,857 francs 



Vol. XXIV.— No. 1. 27- 



