248 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Action of Tobacco upon the System. — This subject, which has for some time 
given rise to so much controversy, has lately been discussed both in this 
country and upon the Continent. In France, M. Decaisne addressed the 
Academy upon the matter, and asserted that the peculiar chloro-anaemic con- 
dition of young boys — sons of artizans and farm labourers — is due in a great 
measure to the influence of tobacco-smoke. At the meeting of the British 
Association Dr. Richardson offered more temperate comments upon the 
question. He considers that the use of tobacco is injurious to young persons, 
less so to people of older growth, and is rather conseiwative in its operation 
upon the frame of the aged. The most serious effects are those shown hi the 
duninution of sensation, and m the operation on the retina. “ The habit of 
smoking,” says the doctor, “ should not be indulged m by females, as it would 
tend to deteriorate their offspring, and hence affect the strength of the 
nation.” 
Electricity as a Means of Cure. — There can be little doubt that galvanism 
will eventually hold a high position among therapeutic agents, notwithstand- 
ing the great discouragement which its advocates have from time to time 
received at the hands of the majority of the profession. Herr Remak, of 
Berlin, has been instituting some very interesting experiments on neuralgic 
patients, with a view to ascertain the reaUy curative effects of electricity. 
The results arrived at have certainly been surprising, as the following case 
will show : — Some tune ago (May 11th, 1861) a woman, aged 40, applied to 
Herr Remak under these circumstances : Fifteen months before she had been 
attacked with complete facial paralysis of the left side, followed by acute 
pain, anaesthesia of the ramifications of the trigeminal nerve, and very 
marked diminution of the mental powers. Despite the administration of 
physic and the application of the process, known as Faradisation, for a joeriod 
of two months, she became worse. The facial muscles were attacked with 
spasms which were more severe upon the right than on the 23aralyzed side. 
The memory was so much unpaired that the patient was incapable of describ- 
ing even the details of her disease. The day after the “ constant current ” 
had been allowed to travel through the cervical ganglion of the left sjunpa- 
thetic, there was a decided im^Drovement observed, for the convulsions had 
in great measure abated. This application of the current was repeated (in 
the presence of Herr Remak’s pupils) three times a week for a jDeriod of 
about three months, and at the end of that period a complete transformation 
was found to have taken place ; her mental ]30wers were restored, the con- 
vulsions had ceased, and the faculty of sensation was recalled. — ^Vide Comptes 
Rendus, LIX., No. 11. 
The Malpighian Tufts of the Kidney have, according to the observations 
of Mr. B. WeUs Richardson, not only one, but two efferent vessels. This 
gentleman thus confirms the late observations of Beale and Virchow. We 
are disposed to receive the assertion that the MalxDighian body gives out two 
returning vessels with some doubt, and should like to see the sj)ecimen which 
shows such an unusual state of things. May it not be possible that the second 
branch is the efferent vessel of a partially uninjected and subjacent tuft, which, 
owing to the thickness of the section, has the appearance of an origin in the 
superior tuft ? — See the Dublin Medical Press, vol. IX., j). 489. 
The Moveable Corpuscles of the Cornea. — If, says Dr. F. Yon Reckling- 
