120 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
of Sciences, M. Ludwig announced that, having been assisted by M. 
Za wary kin in his investigations, he had been able to trace the lymphatic 
vessels to their origin, in the spaces between the tubuli uriniferi and the 
bloodvessels. 
Products of Respiration. — To complete the researches undertaken by Reg- 
nault in 1849, M. Reiset has performed several experiments upon the ordinary 
domestic animals of a farm. The apparatus employed resembled that which 
was used by M. Pettenkofer, and, like the latter, M. Reiset has found that 
pure hydrogen and a hydro-carbon were exhaled by the lungs. In sheep 
the whole of the oxygen which disappeared was found in the carbonic 
acid ; nitrogen was also given off, and a still larger quantity of a hydro- 
carbon. This latter is produced, according to M. Reiset, in all ruminants, 
and is dependent on certain phenomena of digestion, for he has found that 
a hydro-carbon exists in large quantities in the stomachs of ruminants 
that have died from meteorization (hoove). In rabbits the products of 
respiration are nearly the same. Pigs present so many irregularities that 
it is difficult to frame any generalization on the gases exhaled by their 
lungs. In geese and turkeys, nitrogen and carbonic acid were evolved, 
but neither free hydrogen nor a hydro-carbon was found as a product . 
Action of Electricity on the Blood. — M. Bollet, of the University of 
Vienna, asserts that on passing an electric current through blood, this 
fluid from having been opaque becomes quite transparent, assuming at the 
same time a brilliant lake hue. The action is of course upon the blood 
corpuscles, which from the complex phenomena they exhibit when sub- 
mitted to electric influence and observed beneath the microscope, the 
author does not suppose to possess the structure ordinarily assigned to 
them. His observations are in direct opposition to the doctrine of the cell- 
nature of these bodies. 
Presence of Bacteria in the Blood. - During the last six months a 
great deal of controversy has taken place regarding the presence of these 
beings in the blood of animals labouring under certain forms of disease. 
These singular productions were first noticed by Fuchs in 1848, and were 
again described in 1860 by Delafond in the “Bulletin des Seances de la 
Societe des Veterinaires ; ” and have since that period commanded the 
attention of French savans. M. Signol has almost decided the question in 
liis late memoir. He has found Bacteria in the blood of the horse when 
suffering from typhoid fever, influenza, &c. ; and in one case he 
detected their presence in the blood of an animal which died from gan- 
grene, the effect of a wound inflicted with a scissors. When blood con- 
taining these organisms was introduced into the system of a sheep, death 
followed in a very short time, and there were found in the blood of the 
poisoned animal, globules of a regularly-rounded form, but larger than the 
normal white globules, which they slightly resembled ; they were united in 
clusters and were very abundant. They consist of an external cell of a 
violet tint, in the centre of which may be seen several nuclei with a well- 
marked double contour, and which in some instances have an almost hour- 
glass form. The blood-globules usually disappear, and intheirplace are found 
crystals of various forms, resembling those of cholesterine. The cells of 
the liver are almost invisible, owing to the fatty globules by which they are 
