SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
95 
An examination of 727 skulls has shown the author that these are rarely 
united by articulation to the first or second cervical vertebrae, and that, as 
a rule, they serve as attachments for the muscles or for the ligamentary 
connections. The author described three cases of abnormal junction of 
the occipital bone with the summit of the vertebral column. 
Diseased Milk. — During the existence of the foot and mouth disease which 
prevailed so much a few months since Professor Brown examined several 
specimens. A long report appeared in the Lancet. In some specimens which 
were viewed with the micrometer eye-piece the milk corpuscles varied in size 
from to Yoooo an diameter, and the granular masses from 
55 o to i^oo an inch. Milk from animals afiected with cattle plague and 
also with pleuro-pneumonia was always found to contain an abundant quan- 
tity of granular masses and pus-like bodies ; and in cases of cattle plague 
similar elements were distinguished in the curdy exudation which existed 
in the mucous membrane of the mouth, pharynx, trachea, and bronchial 
tubes. 
Buried Alive. — A paper lately appeared in the pages of Scientific Opinion , 
entitled the Physiology of Trance, by Dr. T. E. Clark, in wfiich some very 
curious facts were stated. The following case of a native Indian, who was 
buried for a whole month, is quoted from Braid, and in these days of Welsh 
fasting girls may be of interest. In the floor of the house was a hole, about 
3 ft. long, 2\ ft. broad, and the same in depth, or perhaps a yard deep, in 
which he was placed in a sitting posture, sewed up in a linen shroud, with 
his knees doubled up towards the chin. Two heavy slabs of stone, 5 or 
6 ft. long, several inches thick, and broad enough to cover the mouth of the 
grave, were then placed over him so that he could not escape. The doors 
were closed with masonry, and a guard placed around the building. At the 
expiration of a month the grave was opened, and after certain processes had 
been gone through the Indian revived. 
The Origin of Life. — A series of very valuable papers has been published 
recently in the British Medical Journal. Though the author’s name is not 
stated, we may say that he is a most eminent savant, and that therefore his 
remarks deserve attention. He analyses the evidence on both sides of the 
heterogeny question. In regard to the peculiar effect of sealing vessels — a 
very important point in connection with this controversy — he says that 
we get a decided illustration of the deleterious effects of the mere 
sealed vessel alone, by experimenting with unboiled solutions exposed 
to the influence of ordinary air. The heterogenists say that, if a mace- 
ration of hay be divided into two equal parts, one of which is placed 
in a flask whose neck is hermetically sealed, whilst the other is placed 
in a glass vessel under a bell-jar of the same capacity as the flask, so 
that both solutions may be exposed to the same amount of atmospheric air, 
no ciliated infusorium ever appears in the sealed flask, whilst the fluid under 
the bell-jar soon contains them in abundance. M. Pouchet has also con- 
ducted a somewhat similar experiment, only one in which the possible 
disturbing conditions are narrowed still more. He used a filtered solution 
of flax in the same way, dividing it equally, placing one portion in a flask 
which was then sealed, and another portion under a bell-jar of the same 
capacity as the flask. But in this case the bell-jar was made to dip iuto a 
