SCIENTIFIC SUMMAKT. 
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short time to drive oil some of the alcohol. It can now be mounted in 
Canada balsam. — Vide American Naturalist, Oct. 
The Animal Hospital at Bombay. — This institution, which is termed in the 
vernacular the Pinjrapal, has been described in a paper read before the 
Boston Natural History Society by Mr. AV. T. Brigham. It seems that a 
space of six or seven acres of the heart of the city is inclosed and divided 
into wards for the reception of sick and helpless animals. Cattle, deer, 
horses, dogs, goats, monkeys, and even tortoises, have all their separate 
abodes. Fish, too, says the author of the paper referred to, rescued from 
impending death by the pious Hindoos, swam unmolested in their proper 
tanks. The animals are not treated surgically, but are simply fed and cared 
for by the attendants. 
M. Donne’s Becantation. — At the meeting of the French Academy of 
Sciences, on the 7th of October, M. Donne, who has so long and ably sup- 
ported the heterodox hypothesis of spontaneous generation, cried Peccavi. 
He admitted that his latest researches, so far from supporting heterogeny, 
convince him of the accuracy of the views of his old opponent, M. Pasteur. 
M. Donne’s last experiment consisted in placing eggs in water under the re- 
ceiver of an air-pump, exhausting all the air contained within the shell, 
then re-admitting the air to the receiver, and thus pressing water into the 
eggs. Eggs so treated, and shaken so as to mix the white and yolk 
together, gave no traces of organic life, though left unacted on for at least 
six months. However, the cause need not mourn j it has found an equally 
able and staunch advocate in M. Trecul, the eminent French botanist. 
Bomhyx Japonica. — An effort to introduce this oak-feeding species into 
Ireland has, we believe, been recently attempted; at all events a paper sug- 
gesting its introduction was recently read before the Royal Dublin Society, 
by Dr. De Ricci. There is this peculiar Hibernianism in the idea. The 
young maggots come into existence before the oak-leaves appear in Ireland. 
What would become of them in the meantime ? 
The Limbs of Ornithorynchus and Echidna form the subject of a splendid 
memoir, presented by M. Alix to the Societe Philomathique of Paris. — Vide 
Hlnititut, Nov. 27. 
The Classification of the Itodentia on natural princples has been attempted 
in a paper read before the Academy of Science at Vienna by Herr Fitzinger. 
The author sums up all the anatomical characters in deciding the rank in the 
scale of each species. 
The Saliva of Dolium Signori De Luca and Panceri, of the 
Neapolitan Faculty of Science, announce, as the result of their inquiries, that 
the secretion of this well-known Mediterranean Mollusc contains a large 
proportion of free sulphuric acid, which they think the animal produces by 
its electrolysis of the sulphur compounds in sea-water. The following is 
the composition of the secretions in 100 parts : — 
Free sulphuric acid 3*42 
Combined sulphuric acid 0*2 
Chlorine as chloride’' 0*58 
Potash, soda, magnesia, iron, phosphoric acid, organic matter, &c. . 1*8 
Water 94*0 
1000 
