SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
Ill 
Does Iodine remain Unaltered in the System ? — Signor Bellini replies to 
this question in the negative, and his numerous experiments appear to hear 
out his conclusions, which he thus summarizes: — 1. When iodine is intro- 
duced in a poisonous dose into the stomach of an animal, it is neither 
decomposed nor absorbed entirely in the digestive canal. 2. Iodine is in 
part absorbed as a simple body ; either dissolved or reduced to vapour by 
the animal heat. It thus passes into the circulation. 3. Before it has 
travelled through the walls of the capillaries, it is decomposed by some 
materials of the blood, which, by reason of the rapidity of the circulation, are 
renewed incessantly. 4. From this decomposition there result the iodic and 
hydriodic acids, and the alkaline iodates and iodurets, which, in proportion as 
they are formed, are drawn away by the circulating current, and distributed 
over the body. 5. The iodic acid combining with the free alkaline bases, or 
with the carbonates, prevents the presence of free iodine. 6. The hydriodic 
acid, in the presence of alkaline bases, appears to be converted quickly into 
an alkaline ioduret. 7. In these several reactions, the blood, lymph, tissues, 
organs, and secretions lose less or more their alkalinity, although the acid 
ones lose their acidity. — Vide Lancet Record of the Progress of Medical Science, 
December. 
The Sphygmograph in Comparative Physiology. — The sphygmograph, an 
instrument for recording graphically the several movements of the heart and 
their relation to each other, has been employed in a new field by M. Marev. 
The French savant, in a memoir quite recently published, describes the results 
of his application of the sphygmograph to the hearts of dogs, cats, tortoises, 
frogs, birds, fish, &c. M. Marey’s essay is illustrated by a number of charts 
— fac-similes of those drawn by the instrument, — which show /what a close 
relationship there is between the movements of diastole and systole of all 
animals. — Vide ibid. 
Presence of Copper in Animal Bodies. — Dr. Ulex, who has been ana- 
lyzing the bodies of several animals, has published some curious statements 
upon the above subject. Several of the carnivora in the Hamburg Zoological 
Gardens having died after feeding upon the same horse, they were supposed 
to have been poisoned by its flesh. Strychnine, phosphorus, and arsenic 
were searched for in vain ; but in all the animals small quantities of copper 
were found. This was the case also with the horse which had furnished them 
with food, and it was concluded that this metal had induced the poisoning. 
Upon examining the flesh of another freshly-slaughtered and healthy 
horse, however, copper was also found in it ; and a chemical investigation 
was forthwith set on foot, and this metal was found in the mammalia from 
man downwards, birds, amphibia, Crustacea, insects, &c., to the lowest 
members of the animal kingdom — in fact, wherever it was sought for, in the 
most different animals, coming from the most different countries. The 
wide-spread existence of this copper in the vegetable kingdom, as well as in 
sea-water, has been demonstrated by various chemists. It may be even 
detected in minute quantities in an article usually regarded as of great 
chemical purity — the Swedish filtering-paper, and in wood charcoal. Both 
these substances were employed- in the above-mentioned researches, but in too 
small quantities to furnish any of the copper discovered. The fact of the 
. remarkable diffusion of copper throughout the three kingdoms of nature is at 
