SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
97 
of animals poisoned with cyanogen shows clearly in^ its spectrum both 
the lines of oxyhaemaglobin. — Archiv f. Anat. u. Phys., November. 
The Conduction of Sensory Impressions . — In an article in the December 
number of the Archives de Physiologic, Dr. Brown-Sequard states that the 
conductors of sensory impressions do not cross in the base of the brain but 
reach it already crossed, and that, therefore, their intercrossing must take 
place in the spinal marrow. 
Experiments on Transfusion , — At a recent meeting of the Vienna Aca- 
demy of Sciences, Herr Mittler read a paper detailing his numerous experi- 
ments on this important problem. He finds that transfusion is a much less 
dangerous operation than has been supposed by medical men generally. 
He repeated the old experiment of introducing birds’ blood into the vessels 
of mammals, and found, as did previous physiologists, that the oval cor- 
puscles may be distinguished for several days, but that ultimately they dis- 
appear. Ills results may be summed up as follows : 1. Blood directly 
transfused from one vessel to another does not provoke coagulation in the 
circulation of the animal submitted to the operation, whether it be allied or 
not to the one from which it receives the blood. 2. Blood directly trans- 
fused continues its functions within the vascular system of a kindred animal 
much more completely than blood injected after having been deprived of its 
fibrin. 3. Blood directly transfused from an animal not allied to it is gene- 
rally borne by an animal better and in markedly larger quantity than blood 
defibrinated previous to injection. 4. The blood-globules of mammifers 
can be seen for two or three days after in the blood of birds submitted to 
injection. 6. The narrowest capillaries of mammalian animals present no 
obstacle to the passage of the large elliptical corpuscles of birds. 6. Sup- 
positions still strongly believed in, as to the toxic action of foreign blood are 
either inexact or erroneous : the coagulation of this blood, and the existence 
of the carbonic acid which it contains have no influence on the symp- 
toms caused by it. 7. Blood injected or transfused is some time after 
the operation secreted in many cases by the kidneys. Sometimes effusions of 
blood are observed in the parenchyma of the wounds caused by the operation. 
8. It may safely be admitted that blood corpuscles thus secreted first lose 
their colouring matter and then perish like those placed without the vascular 
system. 9. The experiments in question have not definitively cleared 
up whether the transfused blood loses its physiological powers immediately 
on being received into a foreign vascular system or whether these powers 
continue to exist for a certain period. — VInstitut, Nov. 18. 
METALLURGY, MINERALOGY^, AND MINING. 
On the Application of Chlorine Gas to1 the Toughening a?id Pejinmg of 
Gold . — A paper on this subject by Mr. f^Francis Bow3^er Miller, assayer in 
the Sydney branch of the Royal Mint, was read at the Chemical Society in 
November, which appears to be of great practical importance. If Mr. Miller’s 
process proves as successful in otherj^hands as in his, its simplicity and eco- 
nomy will ensure its extensive employment in this coimtry and elsewhere 
VOL. TUT. NO. XXX. II 
