SCIENTIFIC SUMMAEY. 
623 
thinks that it may aid in the formation of that substance a normal quantity of 
which is so necessary — namely, bile. Most chemists agree that it arrests that 
rapid consumption of tissue and consequent feeling of fatigue which we all 
experience when we work hard with mind or body. Whatever may be its exact 
office, its discovery in kola must greatly enhance its physiological interest, 
.shoving, as it does, that the instinctive desire for it in one form or other 
by Europeans, Americans, and Asiatics, is shared by the natives of Africa. 
The other constituents of the dried kola-nut also indicate that it has the cha- 
racter of coffee, though differing from that article of diet in some important 
respects. Thus, Dr. Atfield found few or no granules of starch in finely- 
powdered coffee, while the powder of kola is apparently half starch, the 
granules forming the prominent object enclosed by the brownish-yellow 
coloured cell walls of the tissue. Although kola in the dry state resembles 
coffee, it differs from that substance in not containing tannin, in possessing 
but little fatty matter, and in the presence of much starch. “ Indeed, so far 
as the analysis indicates, if the fresh nut did not possess peculiar virtues, 
which apparently are lost on drying, it might be advantageously substituted 
by coffee.” For when made into a beverage, it is thick and mucilaginous 
like cacao, but is tasteless and inodprous, and is not impaired in these respects 
by roasting. Subjoined is a tabular statement of its composition : — 
Water 13*65 
Cell wall and colouring matter 20*00 
Starch 42*50 
V olatile oil and fixed fat 1*52 
Albumenoid substance 6*33 
Gum, sugar, and other organic matter 10*67 
Ash 3*20 
Theine 2*13 
100*00 parts. 
Does True SiCfer-fodation ever occur ? — This question forms the subject of 
a very able pamphlet, the report of a paper read some time ago before the 
Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh by Dr. George Lindsay Bonnar. It would 
be impossible for us to enter into the details of the cases cited by the writer ; 
but we must confess that although he has not convinced us that super- 
foetation in the strict sense is a genuine phenomenon, he has brought such 
a powerful weight of evidence to support the cause he pleads, that he has 
considerably shaken our scepticism. His essay contains an immense amount 
of information upon the important question it treats on, and caimotfail to be 
be of great interest to all medical readers. 
Food in its Delation to W orh — The labours of the Kev. Dr. Hauohton are 
o 
already familiar to the readers of the Popular Science Eeview. A new 
exponent of the relation of food to work appears now in the person of 
Dr. Lyon Playfair, who has been lately lecturing in Edinburgh, and at the 
“ Eoyal Institution,” upon this subject. We have now before us a full 
report of his lecture, and though we cannot afford space for an analysis of his 
arguments, which we may remark are in some instances open to question. 
