SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
439 
secondly, because, if it did decompose the 100 grammes in that time, it 
would develope sucb a volume of gas as to convert the unhappy patient 
into a balloon.” M. Scoutetten concludes that the process is a physical one 
of a different kind, the effect of which is the rapid absorption of the liquid 
of the tumour ; and hence he terms it electric resorption. — ^Vide Comptes 
Hendus, August 3, 
The Physiological Action of Belladonna. — M. Meuriot recently contributed 
a paper (since published separately) to the Bidletin generale de Therapeutique 
(July) on this subject. His conclusions are numerous, and some of them 
are of interest. In a poisonous dose he says tliat this drug acts as a paraly- 
sant on the respiratory organs, and this he attributes to its primary influence 
over the pneumogastric nerve. The effect of atropine is first to destroy the 
general sensibility, and afterwards the excitability of the motor nerves. He 
denies that belladonna has any special action on the brain, and attributes 
all its cerebral effects to the disturbance which it produces in the whole 
circulation. He finds that it increases the temperature from about half a 
degree to a degree, and that this increase corresponds to the increased heart 
action. When the action of the heart is lowered the temperature is also 
diminished. 
Composition of Milk . — So few analyses of milk have been recently pub- 
lished, that we extract from an American journal the results of the analyses 
made by Professors Muller and Eisenstiick, of the Royal Agricultural 
Academy of Sweden. The analysis was made of milk collected at different 
times of the day and year, and gave very uniform results. The highest per- 
centage of water was 88-35 \ the lowest 85-92. The following is the tabular 
statement : — 
Eat (butter) .... 
. 4-05 
Albumenoids (caseine, &c.). 
. 3-32 
Sugar of Milk 
. 4-71 
Ash 
. 0-73 
"Water 
. 87-19 
100-00 
— Vide ISlew York Medical Journal., August. 
The Preparation and Determination of Cantharidin. — M. A. Fumouze gives 
the following method for this purpose : — Powdered cantharides are macerated 
with chloroform for twenty-four hours, and this treatment is repeated twice 
with fresh quantities of solvent, the residue having been well squeezed each 
time. The collected solutions are then distilled, and the dark green residue 
treated with carbonic disulphide, which dissolves fatty, resinous, and other 
matters, and precipitates the cantharidin. The precipitate is thrown on a 
filter, washed with carbonic disulphide, and recrystallised from chloroform. 
The same process, omitting the final recrystallisation, may be used for the 
quantitative estimation of cantharidin in cantharides. The average quan- 
tity found was from four to five grammes in one kilogramme. — Vide Journ. 
Pharm., vi. 191. 
Progress of Ovariotomy . — This formidable operation, which was so gravely 
decried when first proposed, has in M. Koeberle’s hands conferred the 
greatest blessings on humanity. The following tables, showing the results 
of M. Kceberle’s operations from 1862 to 1868, are adequate proof of the 
