214 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
&c., "being sufficiently large to enable bim to submit the entire exhalations 
of full-grown sheep and calves to examination. During the respiration of 
calves and sheep, he found a considerable quantity of carburetted hydro- 
gen in the gaseous mixture. This, too, is under the normal conditions. 
Calves in some experiments were fed upon milk only; deprived thus of 
vegetable food, the gaseous mixture exhaled resembled more nearly in its 
composition that exhaled by the carnivori. The production of carburetted 
hydrogen became absolutely nil. M. Deiset considers the formation of car- 
buretted hydrogen in the stomachs of ruminants, when upon their natural 
food, to be a phenomenon of incomplete combustion. He deduces from 
these and former researches, the general conclusion, that the respiratory 
products depend much more upon the nature of the food than upon the 
species of the animal. 
Helation of Health to Geology. — The following letter, addressed] by Mr. 
J. Bray to the editor of the Chemical JVeius, and published in that journal 
(Jan. 10th), is so significant, that we print it in full for the consideration of 
our medical readers : — “ In the report of the meeting of the Local Board of 
Health of Sheerness the following paragraph appears : — ‘ The surveyor said 
that Dr. Buchanan, from the office of the Privy Council, waited upon him to 
make inquiries respecting the nature of the soil at Sheerness. By permission 
of Messrs. "Ward and Brightman he had shown the gentleman the different 
strata forming the soil of Sheerness. Dr. Buchanan has now stated that after 
a careful examination he is convinced that in Sheerness there are fewer cases 
of consumption than in any town in England, and as a whole that Sheerness 
is one of the most healthy places in the kingdom.’ If I read correctly, it 
seems that the healthiness of a place is dependent somewhat on the strata of 
the locality. Can you, or any of your readers, give me any information or 
the name of any work in which the subject is treated on? Ague is very 
prevalent here, and two medical gentlemen inform me that they always en- 
deavour to remove, as soon as possible, all consumptive persons from Sheer- 
ness, which perhaps to a certain extent may account for the few cases of 
consumption mentioned by the authority in question as found in Sheerness.” 
Pi'eservation of Syrup of Iodide of Iron. — At the meeting of the Pharma- 
ceutical Society, Eeb. 5th, Dr. Attfield read a paper by Mr. T. B. Groves, in 
which the author stated that he had for some time been experimenting on 
the best modes of preserving the syrup. He had found that it kept better 
when made with iron filings instead of pure iron in the form of wire, which 
he attributed to the presence of impurities in the filings. He had added 
dilute sulphuric and phosphoric acids as preservative agents, and had obtained 
successful results with them. Mr. Groves prepared a number of specimens 
of the syrup, and to one he added I minim of dilute sulphuric acid to the 
oz.; to another 2 minims of dilute phosphoric acid to the oz.; to a third, 2 
minims of dilute phosphoric and I minim of dilute sulphuric acid to the oz ; 
and to another specimen 8 drops of phosphoric acid. He had found that 
phosphoric acid was the only acid to be relied on, and it was very necessary 
not to add the acid before the syrup had cooled. 
Recurrent Sensibility in a Pivided Nerve. — The British Medical Journal 
reports a case which was recently brought before the Medical Society of 
Strasbourg by M. Bceckel, and in which there was recurrent sensibility of a 
