SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
437 
itself is proposed to be 13 feet in internal diameter and 4 inches thick with 
strengthening’ rings and flanges. It is estimated that 100 feet of this cast 
iron tunnel can be laid per day, and that with the exception of the shore ends 
three and a half years would serve for its completion. Ordinary railway car- 
riages would be worked through the tunnel by pneumatic pressure. The 
speeds proposed are 20 and 30 miles per hour. The total outlay is estimated 
at eight millions, and upon this sum it is thought that the goods traffic alone 
(assumed at 4,000,000 tons per annum) would pay a handsome dividend. 
All the details of the scheme have been carefully matured. 
MEDICAL SCIENCES. 
Injection of Liquor Ammonice in Snahe-hite. — Dr. Eayrer, of Calcutta, has 
made a very concise experiment to test the value of Dr. Halford’s method 
of injecting liq. ammon. in cases of snake-bite. We ourselves some time 
ago expressed an a priori conviction that the remedy was as bad as the 
disease. Dr. Eayrer has lately {Indian Medical Gazette, J uly) described one 
of his experiments on a dog, and he thus sums up his observations : — The 
object of this experiment was to test the effect of the liquor ammonias 
injected into the venous circulation in an animal uninfluenced by the poison. 
It was used of the sp. gr. ‘959 B. P., as directed by Professor Halford, and 
it was injected into the femoral vein in the manner suggested by him. The 
impression produced by this experiment was that the dog had a very narrow 
escape from death, and that the effects of the ammonia had nearly proved 
rapidly fatal. 
New Tonic. — M. Blanchard, in a recent number of Comptes-Bendus, 
describes at length the characters and properties of a new remedy, allied to 
cascarilla, to which the name of conden or coni-xan has been given. The 
cortex of the root is the part employed. Of this an infusion is made, 
about one ounce being used for each dose. 
Death of Professor Purkinje, — During the quarter we have lost one of the 
best known of continental physiologists familiar to the student in connection 
with the ^^axis cylinder of Purkinje,” and also with the germinal vesicle.” 
Professor Purkinje, of Prague, one of the most celebrated physiologists of 
modern times, and especially known for his researches on vibratile cilia, the 
structure of nerve fibre, and the development of the ovum, died July 28, in 
the eighty-second year of his age. 
The Relation as to Area between the Tendon and the Muscle. — Professor the 
Bev. Samuel Haughton has lately published some interesting observations 
on this subject, and especially in regard to the supposed ratio between the 
cross section of the muscle and its tendon. He concludes that the cross 
section of a muscle does not bear a constant ratio to the cross section of 
its tendon, unless the friction experienced by the muscle and tendon be 
also constant, and that there may even be a surplusage of strength in the 
tendon beyond what is absolutely necessary to resist the combined force of 
the muscle and friction. This surplusage, however, cannot be supposed to 
be large, if the principle of economy of material in nature be admitted. 
