Notes and Memoranda, 65 



cranial axis, as entirely subversive of the location of organs as 

 adopted by the phrenologists. 



BRISTOL NATURALISTS' SOCIETY. 



From the second annual report of this Society, we learn that it 

 has 21-1 ordinary and 15 honorary members. Its transactions for 

 the past year exhibit great activity, and the council has recently 

 determined upon a course of action worthy of all praise, and which, 

 we trust, will be imitated in other localities. We allude to the 

 adoption of a resolution proposed by the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Wil- 

 liam Lant Carpenter, that the Society should undertake a complete 

 natural history of the neighbourhood, comprising its geology, 

 palaeontology, mineralogy, botany, and zoology. Looking to the 

 scientific attainments of many members of the Society, and the 

 zealous spirit by which all seem animated, we shall watch with con- 

 fidence and interest the progress of this great work ; and we may 

 remark that few cities equal Bristol in the variety and interest of 

 the circumjacent formations. 



NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



Metrical Globe. — M. E. Gosselin has presented to the French. Academy a 

 specimen of a new terrestrial globe embodying recent geographical discoveries, 

 and made to a scale of 1 . Its circumference being 80 centimetres, 



50,000,000 ° 



two millimetres measured on it, represent 100 kilometres. In the colouring, blue 

 represents water, and bistre mountains. 



Variable Stab, Lalande, 40,196. — M. H. Goldschmidt publishes in the 

 Astronomische Nachrichten observations on the above star, which he names 

 T. Aquarh, in conformity with Argelander nomenclature. He makes its period 

 197„days. Last year he found its light decreasing during 78 days, and it was 

 invisible for 61 days. In 1861 it grew larger during 56 days. It is a 7 mag. 

 star, R.A. 20h. 39m. 23s. ; Dec. 5° 52' 43". 



' Suture oe a Nerve. — M. Langier details in Comptes Rendus the particulars 

 of his success in obtaining by means of a suture a reunion of the median nerve 

 which had been severed by an accident. His patient in consequence of the 

 division of the nerve lost all sensation in his thumb and two adjacent fingers, and 

 ■was unable to place the thumb in opposition. A return of sensibility began on 

 the evening of the day of operation, and was more marked on the day following, 

 after which progress was rapid. M. Langier considers that this interesting ex- 

 periment proves — 1. That after the suture of a severed nerve, sensibility and 

 motion are noticeably restored to the affected parts in a very few hours. 2. That 

 the re-establishment of functions is progressive. 3. That it is successive, as 

 tactile sensations and motions are obtained before sensations of pain and tem- 

 perature. 4. That the suture of a nerve, as he performed it, does not occasion 

 special pains or serious disturbances. 5. That the operation may be successfully 

 performed on nerves of considerable size. 



Drinking- and Corpulence.— M. Dancel has laid before the French 

 Academy some experiments and observations on corpulence, from which he 

 deduces the conclusion that it is greatly promoted in man and animals by drink- 

 ing much fluid, and may be reduced by diminishing the liquid supply. 



Paralysis, from Vertebral Displacement, Cured. — M. Maisonneuve of 

 the Maison Dieu recently had for a patient a girl of sixteen, suffering from general 

 paralysis in consequence of a displacement of the second cervical vertebra by 

 which the chin was pressed down on the collar-bones and the spinal marrow 



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