SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
215 
divided median nerve — the result of accident. Immediately after the acci- 
dent, it v^^as ascertained that the fingers had not lost all sensibility, and the 
central end of the median nerve was sensitive. The superficial and deep 
flexor tendons were completely divided, as well as the nerve. The fingers 
and wrist were flexed during three weeks. The nerve was not sutured. At 
the end of two months, the movements were restored, and sensibility was 
normal over the whole palmar face of the hand and fingers, except the index, 
where it was blunted. According to M. Bcnckel, the regeneration of the 
median nerve is the more rapid for the absence of any suture. 
The Capillaries in Cerebral Softening . — In the Archives Generates de Mede- 
cineioT January, MM. Prevostand Cotard have published the results of some 
researches which, they think, demonstrate the following proposition : That, 
if granulo-fatty degeneration of the capillaries and their aneurismal dilata- 
tion may, in a certain number of cases, be considered as the primary lesion 
which acts as the producing cause of softening of the brain, these same vas- 
cular alterations may be secondary, and depend, like the concomitant altera- 
tion of the nerve-tissue, for instance, on arterial obliteration. They appear, 
also, to be capable of secondary production, whatever may be the producing 
cause of the necrobiosis of the nerve-tissue. 
Temperature of the body in Convulsions. — MM. Charcot and Bouchard pub- 
lish, in the journal above quoted, a valuable paper on the temperature of 
the body in convulsions. They have discovered a remarkable difference be- 
tween the internal temperature accompanying tonic and that found in cases of 
clonic convulsions. In all forms of tonic convulsions, whether produced 
by disease or electricity, the internal temperature is virtually increased j in 
clonic convulsions, on the contrary, it is not perceptibly altered. 
Deposit of Uric Acid . — Physiologists and physicians are both interested 
in knowing why it is that uric acid is deposited in the urine ; and we there- 
fore refer them to a paper .read by Herr P. Hofmann before the Boyal 
Academy of Munich, as containing all the information required. Herr 
Hofmann takes up the theories of his predecessor in this inquiry, and he very 
satisfactorily disproves them. He then proceeds to show that, as proved by 
Liebig, the acidity of urine is due to the presence of acid phosphate of soda ,* 
and he shows that, if this salt and one of the urates be mixed in solution in 
equal proportions, the mixture will become alkaline, the urate will be de- 
composed, and uric acid will be deposited. Then he points out that the 
uric acid in urine is deposited subsequently to, and not on, cooling the 
secretion ; and that, while it is being deposited, the urine is becoming alka- 
line. He therefore concludes that uric acid is derived from the urates 
which are decomposed by the acid phosphates of soda. — Vide L'Institut, 
March 11. 
METALLURGY, MINERALOGY, AND MINING. 
The Coal-jields of Scotland . — In one of the late numbers of the Artizan, a 
very interesting account is published of the coal-fields of Scotland, from 
which we learn that, though fragmentary beds occur in the Western Islands, 
the great coal-strata extend along the valleys of the Forth and Clyde, and 
