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duction of vomiting, or the guilt of the accused proved by his death. The 
medicine men are by no means scrupulous in the accomplishment of their 
object, and if, from any cause, they desire the death of their victim, a club 
is employed to compensate for the slowness or failure of the action of the 
poison.” The bean belongs to the order Leguminosse, and its technical 
name is Physostigma venenosum. The action of the kernel when adminis- 
tered internally is to be referred entirely to the spinal cord. The contrac- 
tion of the pupils, which is one of the results, may be produced in three 
ways : positively by cerebral irritation ; negatively by spinal depression ; 
and complexly by a combination of the two. The symptoms prove that 
the first never occurs, therefore the second must be the only cause. In 
fact, the balance between the dilators and contractors of the iris being 
destroyed by the depression of the nervous centres affecting the first, the 
contractors operate, and so close the iris. Death takes place either by 
asphyxia or by syncope, but possibly the heart’s action may be interfered 
with primarily owing to the special action of this medicine on the cardiac 
muscle. Dr. Fraser, who experimented very extensively upon himself, 
describes minutely the strange sensation felt in the epigastrium after a dose 
of six grains of the finely-powdered kernel had been taken ; and has also 
recorded the alternations in point of frequency of the pulse. 
Treatment of Asthma by Static Electricity.— In the Comptes Rendus for 
November 23, we find a note from M. Poggioli, stating that he has produced 
some extraordinary cures of this unpleasant ailment by means of electricity. 
He says that four cases of asthma, which were incurable by ordinary 
remedies, were treated by electricity with an amount of success as surpris- 
ing to the physician as the patient. He was quite certain that the cases 
were those of genuine asthma. He would not approve of employing 
electricity in cases of symptomatic asthma combined with either disease of 
the heart or pulmonary emphysema. 
Bacteria in the Blood of Persons labouring under Typhoid Fever. — M. 
Velpeau recently presented a note from the Italian Professor, Tigri, 
recording the presence of these beings in the blood of a man who died of 
typhoid fever. This statement is of exceeding interest, as it tends to con- 
firm an opinion for some time prevalent among scientific physicians, that 
zymotic diseases originate in the development of certain vegetable spores.— 
Comptes Rendus , No. 20. 
Palmidactylism Reappearing during several Generations. — M. Berigny 
described some interesting cases of this phenomenon at a recent meeting of 
the French Academy. He said, starting with the first generation, the 
mother had the third and fourth toes of the right foot webbed throughout 
their entire length, her husband’s hands and feet being normal. The 
second generation, which consisted of seven children — three boys and four 
girls — did not exhibit this peculiarity. In the third generation, one of the 
daughters gave birth to a girl (the eldest), whose middle and ring 
fingers of the right hand were webbed like her grandmother’s toes. 
Another sister also gave birth to a boy and girl, both of whom had the 
middle and ring fingers of the right hand webbed. Of three boys, brothers 
to the preceding, one had five children, of which the eldest, a boy, came 
into the world with the same anomalous condition of the extremities. In 
