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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the second stage by expelling the foetus. The amount of available additional 
force given out by the abdominal muscles admits of calculation, and is found 
much greater than the force produced by the involuntary contractions of 
the womb itself. 
The antagonistic Action of Strychnine and Chloral. — Now that chloral is 
coming into general use as an hypnotic it is interesting and important to 
note that M. Liebreich has discovered the fact that strychnia is antidotal 
to chloral. The results of M. Liebreich’s novel researches were laid before 
the French Academy of Sciences a few weeks ago by Professor Wurtz, of 
the Paris Faculty. M. Wurtz stated that the attention of the Berlin ex- 
perimenter had been drawn to strychnia by the observation of a case of 
trismus, which after having persisted eight days was immediately cured on 
the employment of chloral. This led him to produce, artificially, the phe- 
nomena of tetanus in animals by the administration of strychnia, in order to 
study the effects of chloral on this artificial condition. He then observed 
that chloral diminished the effects of strychnia, provided it were exhibited 
very soon after the administration of the alkaloid. Another important 
result was obtained when M. Liebreich, pursuing his researches, discovered 
the effect of strychnine on animals poisoned by large doses of chloral. He 
then made out that strychnia, administered after a too heavy dose of chloral, 
shortens and destroys the effects of this substance, yet without producing 
the injurious action which it exhibits in ordinary cases. Therefore M. Lie- 
breich proposes to employ injections of nitrate of strychnia as an antidote in 
cases where accidents have occurred through an overdose of chloral or 
chloroform. 
An Italian surgical Prize. — The Medico-Chirurgical Society of Bologna ' 
has awarded the Sgarzi Gaiani prize of 2,000 lire (80/.) to Professor A. 
Corradi, of Pavia, for the best work on the improvements effected in surgery 
by Italians during the present century. 
The Passage of white Corpuscles through the Capillaries. — M. Feltz contra- 
dicts the well-known recent experiments which seem to show that the 
white blood-corpuscles traverse the walls of the capillaries. He attempts to 
demonstrate the absence of apertures of the capillaries. We should like 
to know by what delicate method he effects such a demonstration, for 
even in the case of the connective tissue, the question as to whether there are 
or are not minute spaces is one of the most difficult points to determine in 
the whole range of histology. The question of the apertures in the 
capillaries is not less difficult. 
The four Apertures of the Heart. — Dr. Herbert Davies has published 
before the Royal Societ} r a long and very valuable paper on the “law 
which regulates the magnitude of the areas of the four orifices of the 
heart.” The author endeavoured to show that the size of the aperture has 
an exact relation — according to dynamical laws — to the velocity of the 
current passing through it. — Vide Paper read before the Royal Society 
March 17. 
A Collection of Greek Skulls for the Hunterian Society. — The Council of the 
Hunterian Museum are in treaty with Dr. Nicolucci of Isola di Sooafor the 
purchase of Lis line collection of Italian and Greek skulls. This collection, 
comprising 1 ‘J o specimens of ancient and modern crania, selected with great 
