SCIENTIFIC SUMMAKY. 
335 
a double layer of swanskin, which is wetted with a decoction of marsh- 
mallow, linseed, or poppy heads, and which maintains a temperature of 70 ° 
centigrade for more than twelve hours. 
Termination of the Ne?'ves in Muscle. — The views expressed by Dr. 
Lionel Beale in the several admirable memoirs he has published on this 
subject continue to be confirmed by their author’s further researches. In 
the last number of his Archives of Medicine , Dr. Beale gives some very 
beautiful drawings of the plexuses of dark-bordered fibres, and those who 
desire to see the relations of ultimate nerve-fibre to ultimate muscle-fibre 
can do no better than consult these drawings. 
The cause of Muscular Contraction. — The numerous and convincing experi- 
ments of Dr. C. B. Badcliffe, have already converted most of our modern 
physiologists to the doctrine that muscular contraction is nothing more than 
electrical discharge. While the muscles are at rest, the electric charge 
causes a condition of repulsion among the muscular elements by virtue of 
which the muscle is increased in length. The instant this electricity is 
discharged the repulsion ceases, and the natural attraction of the muscular 
particles coming into play, the muscle shortens. That such a discharge ac- 
companies the muscular contraction is now one of the admitted facts of 
physiological science. The state of things in Rigor mortis , where there is the 
most complete degree of discharge, is a very powerful argument in favour of 
Dr. Badcliffe ’s views, but an appeal to the ordinary phenomena of nervous 
pathology puts the discharge theory of muscular contraction beyond all 
question. We call attention to these circumstances, because we notice in 
the last number of Dr. Beale’s Archives , a paper by Mr. Baxter, on muscular 
contraction, in which the author makes a wholesale appropriation of Dr. 
Badeliffe’s theory, but carefully avoids allusion either to Dr. Badcliffe’s 
treatise, or to his papers read before the Boyal Society. Perhaps Mr. 
Baxter is unfamiliar with Dr. Bacliffe’s researches. If such be the case, 
the sooner he informs himself upon them, the better. 
. METALLURGY, MINERALOGY, AND MINING. 
Iridium in Canada. — In one of the Canadian journals, it is stated that a 
Mr. Meves of Madoc, has found iridium among the materials which exist 
with gold in the Bichardson mine. This is not in accordance with the 
report of Dr. Sterry Hunt, and Mr. Michel $ but as Mr. Meves’ specimens 
were derived from a different portion of the vein, it is possible that the 
existence of iridium may be a fact. Iridium is a hard metal, and exists in 
the Californian gold ; its presence in the gold coined at the United States’ 
mint caused the destruction of several valuable dies, and thus led to its 
discovery. 
A New Fuel. — This is a modified peat-fuel for which Mr. Lee has taken 
out a patent. It is said to possess many advantages over coal, as regards 
economy and production of steam-power. The Shipping Gazette gives the 
following account of some experiments lately made with this fuel : — u The 
results arrived at were considered to prove that peat, when properly dried 
YOL. YI. — NO. XXIV. B B 
