762 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 
plasma—and not in the red globules, that the generation of fibrine must be found, 
and the commencement of the formation of fibrine is always marked by the agglu- 
tination of several white globules. Now, according to Schmidt, these white 
globules form a ferment of fibrine; this ferment does not exist in the blood during 
circulation; it is formed the moment the blood quits the vessels and comes in 
contact with foreign bodies; it is derived from the white globules, hence the fer- 
ment does not extst whilst the blood circulates: if the ferment be injected into the 
veins of a living animal, it is quickly destroyed. The white globules, on leaving 
the blood and coming into contact with a foreign body, are irritated, and that 
produces the ferment. : 
M. Engineer Roche has published a very interesting report on the Trans- 
Saharian railway, by which France is studying to connect her colonies at the Laborn 
and Sivegne with Algeria. No difficulties exist under the heads of sandhills and 
water; the latter ‘‘wul be found in all the Sahara in sufficient quantity for the 
wants of the railway.”” The construction of the line will be extremely easy: the 
soil will be the ballast; no masonry work will be required. The only difficulty 
is the want of coal, which must be brought from the seaside. M. Roche does 
not despair of utilizing the solar heat, by means of the apparatus Mouchot, or 
rather reflector, indirectly, of course, with compressed air. 
M. Delisrain has concluded his examination of the origin of carbon in vege. 
tables; it is the chlorophyll cell which reduces the carbonic acid, and so elaborates 
the organic matter; the latter cannot enter into circulation, according to some 
authorities, unless it be a second time burned. 
M. Panchon’s careful experiments on the influence of light on germination, 
are very interesting. He has found that the lighter the grain the more rapidly 
it germinates. Owing to the difficulty of not having identical volumes of heat, 
for two different seeds, no serious comparison under the head of temperature 
could be made. Light exercises an influence more or less accentuated on ger- 
mination, by forming the absorption of oxygen; heat diminishes the importance 
of the influence of light, but the quantity of oxygen absorbed augments with the 
elevation of the external temperature. More carbonic acid is given off during 
obscurity ; the latter would appear to be in some cases a condition favorable to 
the development of certain seeds. 
It was an old doctrine, because taught by his parents, that epidemics are 
influenced by the seasons, the soil, atmosphere, cold, heat and humidity. The 
doctrine was overthrown by Broussais, who placed all the disease in the subject 
in the evolution of the morbific element, and that nothing but the medical treat- 
ment could modify. A reaction has set in; it is now considered a truism that 
there is a close connection between epidemics and climatic influences. “Since 
twenty years Dr. Besnier has been delegated by the Medical Society of Paris to 
collect and study all the facts bearing on the point. Typhoid fever is a morbid 
type to be met with in every country, with all human races, and at every epoch 
