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water, but that this absorption is too irregular to be depended on as a 
method of introducing medicines. The absorption is favoured or retarded 
by several circumstances : for example, it takes place most readily in 
young persons, and is effected more completely in places where the skin 
is thin, as the neck, axilla, &c., than where it is more dense, as the back 
and limbs. The extent of surface and the length of time during 
which friction is made have also much to do with it. The nature of 
the medicine has a decided influence ; insoluble substances, with the 
exception of mercury, being never absorbed. When irritant mixtures, 
such as the alkalis and alcohol, are applied to the skin, the absorptive 
power is increased, in great measure owing to the solution of part of the 
epidermis. The absorption is also intensified by the employment of 
unctuous materials — not by any special influence they possess, but because 
they allow the friction to be more effectually carried on. In experimenting 
on the absorptive properties of the lungs, he found these organs took in but 
a small quantity of iodine, and that neither mercury nor belladonna 
was absorbed by them.— “ Comptes Rendus ,” August 3. 
Influence of the Nerves upon the Sphincters of the Bladder and Anus. — A 
series of vivisections have been made at M. Claude Bernard’s laboratory by 
Messrs. Giannuzzi and Nawrocki, in order to determine the influence of 
the nerves supplying the above parts. Having injected acetate of morphia 
into the jugular vein of a dog for the purpose of rendering it insensible, 
they exposed the bladder by means of an incision into the abdominal walls, 
and they tied the rectum, to prevent the descent of fsecal matter ; finally 
they tied one ureter and introduced into the other a canula provided with a 
stop-cock, which was connected by an india-rubber tube with a funnel filled 
with water, at from 80° to 35° centigrade ; the funnel being fixed on a vertical 
sliding stem, graduated in centimetres. In this way they were enabled to 
calculate the exact pressure of the water, by knowing the height from 
which it flowed. Water having been allowed to flow into the bladder, 
it was found that, in order to produce a continuous flow from the urethra , 
it was necessary to have the pressure of a column of water 63 centi- 
metres ; this was before the section of the nerves. The nerves supplying 
the bladder were then divided, and it was found that a column of 34 
centimetres produced a continuous stream from the urethra. Now, as this 
column is also required to produce the flow after death, it is evident that the 
power of so-called tonicity of the sphincters is due to the influence of the 
nerves. An exactly similar experiment was made on the anus, and the 
same result obtained, thus proving incontestably that the action of these 
sphincters ceases when the nervous supply is cut off. 
Marriages of Consanguinity. — The conventional ideas regarding the 
results of these unions are likely to receive a severe blow from the memoir 
recently laid before the French Academy by M. Seguin. The author is 
fully convinced that marriages of the above kind are not followed by any 
consequences other than those to which all unions are liable. In proof 
of his view he gives a table in which are set forth the names of twenty 
members of his own family who intermarried ; and, to judge from the 
scheme, the results are not at all alarming. In one instance we find two 
cousins marrying, and being blest with ten olive-branches ; whilst in 
