MISCELLANY. 



125 



tion of that Disease ; " Fernand Papillon, 

 on " The Relations between Science and 

 Metaphysics ; " the Abbe" Ducrost, on " The 

 Prehistoric Station of Solutre ; " and Dr. 

 Bertillon on " The Population of France." 



One of the sections of the French Asso- 

 ciation is devoted to the medical sciences. 

 In this department, the most remarkable 

 papers were those of M. Oilier, on " The 

 Surgical Means of favoring the Growth of 

 the Bones in Man ; " M. Chauveau, on " The 

 Transmission of Tuberculosis through the 

 Digestive Organs ; " M. J. Gayet, on " The 

 Regeneration of the Crystalline Lens ; " and 

 M. Diday, on " A Physiological Theory of 

 the Passion of Love." 



In anthropology, we may mention M. 

 Lagneau's " Ethnological Researches on the 

 Basin of the Saone and Other Affluents of the 

 Rhone ; " M. Chauvet's " Observations on 

 the Bone-Caves of Charente," Gabriel Mor- 

 tillet and Abel Hovelacque on "The Pre- 

 cursor of Man in the Tertiary Period." 



The chemical section presents matter of 

 special interest only for chemists. In that 

 of botany, M. Merget read a paper on " The 

 role of the Stomata in the Exchange of Gases 

 between the Plant and the Atmosphere." 



The Cryptograph. — A very ingenious 

 instrument, the cryptograph, was recently 

 described by its inventor, Pelegrin, in a 

 note communicated to the French Academy 

 of Sciences. The cryptograph is a con- 

 trivance intended for noting down on the 

 spot and converting into mathematical ex- 

 pressions, so that they may be sent directly 

 and secretly by telegraph, the polar co- 

 ordinates of the points which determine a 

 given figure. By means of this instrument, 

 one may — at New York, for instance — 

 trace out figures seen and noted down by a 

 correspondent at any point in telegraphic 

 communication with him. The cryptograph 

 consists of a graduated arc of a circle, and 

 an alidade, or index, also graduated and 

 movable over the entire arc. The alidade 

 has attached to it a small, thin plate of 

 mica, which may slide up and down its en- 

 tire length. On the mica is a black point, 

 and this, it is plain, may occupy every pos- 

 sible position within the arc. A sight is 

 fixed in front of the instrument. In order, 

 now, to note down the outlines of a given 



figure, the observer places his eye at the 

 sight, and brings the black speck on the 

 mica over all the chief points, and marks 

 their polar coordinates, as shown by the 

 positions of the alidade and the sliding- 

 point. These numbers may then be trans- 

 mitted by telegraph anywhere. With the 

 assistance of another cryptograph, in which 

 the mica is replaced by a style or pen, the 

 points noted by the first instrument are at 

 once found and copied on paper. 



Localization of the Faculty of Speech. — 



In a recent memoir on the localization of 

 the faculty of speech in the anterior lobes 

 of the brain, the eminent physiologist Bouil- 

 laud communicates to the French Academy 

 of Sciences the results of his protracted re- 

 searches on that subject. Some of the cases 

 cited by him in the course of the memoir 

 are extremely curious. In some instances, 

 says he, the inability to speak is restricted 

 to a certain class of words — certain proper 

 names, for instance ; in others, it extends to 

 all past events ; in others, again, only promi- 

 nent circumstances are involved ; and so 

 on. Cuvier tells of a man who had lost the 

 recollection of all nouns-substantive, and who 

 would construct his phrases perfectly and 

 regularly, the places of the nouns being 

 always left vacant. Some years ago, M. 

 Bouillaud visited a patient whose vocabu- 

 lary did not contain a single verb, but who, 

 notwithstanding, talked with remarkable 

 volubility : his language was, of course, per- 

 fectly unintelligible. Others are unable, of 

 their own accord, to write some particular 

 word — house, for instance — though they can 

 copy it when it is placed before them. A 

 lady, forty-three years of age, was suddenly 

 deprived of the power of speech, and entered 

 the Cochin Hospital ; she heard and under- 

 stood perfectly every thing that was said 

 to her, but could not speak. She could 

 express herself in writing, however, and 

 thus it was learned that she suffered pain 

 in the forehead. From these cases, it fol- 

 lows that aphasia is produced by an inca- 

 pacity to execute the coordinate movements 

 requisite for pronunciation, and that it has 

 nothing to do with loss of memory as to the 

 meaning of words. 



According to M. Bouillaud, these phe- 

 nomena are produced by lesions of the an- 



