440 
POPULAK SCIENCE EEVIEW. 
success of this operation in the hands of the surgeon who makes himself 
master of it : — 
The 1st year^ in 6 cases 1 death 
,, 2nd j, 4 ,, 2 
V 7 ? ® 77 ^ 77 
77 77 ^ 77 77 
77 77 77 ^ 77 
„ 6th „ 23 „ 6 „ 
Snake-hites as a Preventive of Hydropholia . — In an article which ap- 
peared in LesMondes (July), a very extraordinary statement was made to the 
following effect: — Hydrophobia is absent fj'om Spain, the reason being that the 
people who are bitten by mad dogs have been previously bitten by the various 
snakes of the country. This belief is so prevalent among the inhabitants, that 
they regularly submit their children to serpents, that they may be bitten, and 
in this way avoid hydrophobia in after years. When we first read this 
statement we put it down as an impudent falsehood. We are, therefore, glad 
to perceive that it has received denial from one thoroughly qualified to give 
an opinion on the subject. M. Ramon de la Sagra, a Spaniard himself and 
a physiologist, whose name is well known abroad, has sent in a note to the 
French Academy, in which he says that the statement in Les Mondes is 
utterly false. Hydrophobia is common enough in Spain, and exists in both 
the canine species of that country, the dog and the wolf ; and ophidian in- 
oculation ” is never dreamt of. The usual means of treating the wound is 
by deep cauterisation. If this does not suffice, the physician waits till 
peculiar vesicles appear on the tongue ; these are then pierced with a red- 
hot needle, and the mouth is frequently and daily gargled. This treatment, 
he says, is attended with excellent results. — Vide Comptes Rendus, August 31. 
On the Molecular Modifcotions that Tension produces on Muscle is the title 
of a paper presented to the French Academy (July 13) by M. Chmoule- 
witch. The author questions some of the propositions of Weber, and draws 
some interesting conclusions in relation to the development of heat and elec- 
tricity. 
Flukes from the Indian Elephant. — At the British Association, Dr. Cob- 
bold gave a description of a new species of fluke removed from an elephant 
which had died at Rangoon. Professor Huxley had also received specimens 
from Burmah, accompanied with statements to the effect that the distoma in 
question had given rise to an epidemic in that country. In point of fact, 
the rot ” disease was affecting these huge pachydermatous animals. 
The entozoon previously noticed by Dr. Jackson, of America, had never 
been properly described. Specimens (probably of this species) were pre- 
served in the museum of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement 
and Observation.” The parasite was not, as had been supposed, a species of 
distoma. It was closely allied to, but quite distinct from, the common 
fluke. Several of the examples transmitted to Professor Huxley might now be 
seen in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. It was 
explained that the prevalence or absence of any particular species of trema- 
todes durins’ any season was due to varying atmospheric influences. Thus 
an unusual amount of wet and heat was eminently favourable to the de- 
velopment of the larval or cercarian forms which immediately preceded the 
