1865.] Zoology and Animal Physiology. 503 



unfavourable circumstances, for the internal resistance was far greater 

 than that of the interposed voltameter. 



4. A platinum wire half a millimetre in thickness introduced into 

 the circuit of the same wire is melted. 



5. Thirty elements produce an electro-magnet of 150 lbs. lifting 

 force. 



6. The current is produced by heating one of the junctions of the 

 elements, and cooling the second by water of the ordinary tem- 

 perature. 



X. ZOOLOGY. 



Including Animal Physiology, the Microscope, and the Transactions of 

 the Zoological Society of London. 



Professor Gorini, of Lodi, near Turin, has been engaged for many 

 years past in perfecting a process for preserving dead animals from 

 putrefaction. His preparations of the human body have for some time 

 been so excellent as to look like wax, the lips retaining their natural 

 colour, and the expression being scarcely altered. For the purposes 

 of dissection this method is likely to be of great practical value, as 

 bodies can be retained in a state of softness and freshness for six 

 months. After this time the preparations begin to turn hard and to 

 assume a mummy-like aspect, but immersion in water restores thsm 

 to their original softness. As yet M. Gorini has kept secret his pro- 

 cess of preservation, but it is hoped that in the interests of science he 

 will soon make it public. The process does not seem to be tedious or 

 expensive, for he takes only one day in preparing subjects for future 

 dissection, and for this operation he charges but four shillings. A 

 commission of the Eoyal Academy of Sciences at Turin rej>orted upon 

 this process at the close of last year, from which report these details 

 are derived. It is not only applicable for anatomical purposes, but 

 can also be employed to preserve specimens of natural history, and to 

 keep butchers' meat from change. 



M. Dareste has investigated the facts relating to the coexistence 

 of two embryos upon a single vitellus, first noticed by Wolff, and 

 found that two distinct physiological phenomena are indicated. In 

 the one case the distinct blastoderms are separated from each other in 

 the earliest days of incubation, each presenting its transparent area, 

 which may give rise to an embryo each enveloped in its proper am- 

 nios. These two embryos thus remain completely separated, being 

 only mediately united by the vitellus. But in the second case there 

 exists only a single blastoderm, and in this a single transparent 

 area, which is remarkably irregular. The two embryos which are 

 developed in this single, but irregular, area give origin to a single 

 vascular area, and they become united by a single amnios. The 

 two embryos thus developed upon a common transparent area re- 

 main in some cases completely isolated, except as regards their 

 indirect union by the vitellus. These both may be developed 



