410 



SCIEXCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 170 



Professor Vulpian, the eminent physiologist, has 

 been recently elected secretaire perpetuel to the 

 Academy of sciences, in the place of Jamin. The 

 election was a close contest. M. Henri Milne- 

 Edwards was the other competitor, and the mu- 

 seum backed him solidly : but it was of no use : 

 the son does not possess the influences the father 

 exerted. It must be said also, that, from a general 

 scientific point of view, Vulpian is far superior to 

 his opponent as an original investigator and as 

 a man of great culture. M. H. Milne-Edward s's 

 works are rather few, while those of Vulpian are 

 numerous and widely known. Among his prin- 

 cipal contributions, we shall recall the following : 

 1 Lecons sur la physiologie du systeme nerveux ; ' 

 ' Lecons sur les vaso-moteurs ; ' ' Lecons sur les sub- 

 stances toxiques et medicamenteuses ; ' ' Lecons sur 

 les maladies de la moelle.' Vulpian is a very kind- 

 hearted and most excellent man. He is much 

 loved by all the students, and is a man of high 

 character. His whole life has been devoted to 

 science, and, although a physician, he has never 

 sought to extend his practice. It must be remem- 

 bered, however, that he has been called upon to 

 give his medical advice concerning two illustrious 

 patients, — Count of Chambord, and Victor Hugo. 

 It is generally believed that M. Brown-Sequard — 

 well known in America — will be elected a mem- 

 ber of the academy in Vulpian's seat, since it is 

 the custom for the secretaires perpetuels to resign 

 from the section to which they were elected. 



At the meeting in which Vulpian was elected 

 secretary, M. Bouchard, professor in the medical 

 school, read an interesting paper on the toxicity 

 of urine during sleep and during waking hours. 

 At the close of day this liquid is rather inoffensive ; 

 but, as sleep comes on, it grows more and more 

 toxic : eight hours after waking, it is the most 

 toxic possible. The symptoms of urine-poisoning 

 are different with night and day urine. In the 

 second case the symptoms are similar to those 

 brought on by narcotics : in the first they resem- 

 ble those provoked by convulsing poisons. Upon 

 the whole, then, day urine tends to bring on 

 sleep ; and night, to awaken the sleeper. Professor 

 Bouchard's paper is a very interesting one, and 

 we have no doubt as to his obtaining very impor- 

 tant results by continuing these experiments. 



At the Acad6mie de mCdecine, M. Marc See, at 

 a recent meeting, read an interesting paper on the 

 surface of the pulmonary vesicles. It is known, 

 that, according to Kuss, this surface is some two 

 hundred square metres. M. See does not think 

 that it is so great, but he still believes that it is 

 equal to 130 or 135 square metres ; that is, about 

 ninety times the skin-surface. As it is, this sur- 

 face is something enormous. 



You may have heard some time ago of a very 

 sad accident that happened in a mining-district 

 near Perigueux, in the south of France. A sort 

 of avalanche of rocks and earth buried a large 

 number of workmen, and it was hoped for many 

 days that they would be saved, because they might 

 have taken refuge in caves in the hill when the 

 avalanche occurred. In fact, it is certain that the 

 unfortunate men were not — all, at least — killed by 

 the accident. After every thing had been done to 

 rescue them, and it was found impossible, owing 

 to the immense quantity of materials to be bored 

 through, a long hole was bored down directly to 

 the caves, large enough to admit of the passing of 

 provisions and tools. As nothing was heard, an 

 effort was made to see what was going on within. 

 An engineer and a photographer then devised a 

 very ingenious plan. They sent down into the 

 hole an electric lamp strong enough to illuminate 

 the whole cave, and after that a photographic 

 apparatus. The plate, after some time of expos- 

 ure in the cave, came up, sure enough, perfectly 

 impressed. But it revealed a ghastly scene. One 

 of the bodies of the men — quite recognizable by the 

 miners — was lying near the apparatus, and evident- 

 ly had not long been dead. Near and around him 

 pieces of other bodies were to be seen, and they 

 were so disposed as to make it probable they had 

 been torn from some corpse by the survivors. 

 There is no reason, after the photographs, to suppose 

 that these bodies were mangled by the accident, as 

 they were quite a Vabri of the avalanche itself ; 

 at least, if they had been so mangled, these frag- 

 ments could not have come naturally, or have 

 been brought to the place where they were, un- 

 less by the survivors. This shocking tragedy has 

 created a great excitement among the miners, who 

 are convinced, that, if more haste had been made, 

 some of the victims might have been saved. At 

 all events, the idea of MM. Siemens and Langlois 

 — the engineer and photographer — has proved a 

 very ingenious one, and oue that may be resorted 

 to in similar cases. 



The Gheel colony is certainly well known on 

 the other side of the Atlantic. It is a colony for 

 lunatics, where the no-restraint system is the only 

 one used. The insane, instead of being shut up 

 in cells or asylums, are committed to the care of 

 the inhabitants of the country with whom they 

 live, as would sane persons, for a very modest 

 payment. This system is a very old one, and 

 Gheel is unique in the world ; the inhabitants be- 

 ing trained to keeping the insane, and living with 

 them, for many centuries. However old. the 

 system seems to be very good, at least for a large 

 proportion of insane who do not require to be shut 

 up, and to whom life in the open air seems to be 



