SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
439 
nerves going to this gland — viz., the corda tympani — is stimulated, two 
effects occur. First, the vessels going to the gland dilate, the blood flows 
quietly through them, and a free supply of lymph is poured out into the 
lymph spaces surrounding the gland ; secondly, the cells of the gland absorb 
this lymph, convert it into saliva, and pour it out into the duct of the gland. 
If the animal be poisoned, or other events which he mentioned occur, the 
result would be different. There was a third way in which secretion might be 
induced, and that a somewhat extraordinary one — viz., by paralysis of certain 
nerves going to the gland instead of by irritation. It had not yet been as- 
certained whether this kind of secretion could be counteracted by atropia or 
not. With regard to secretion in the intestines very little was known, but 
it was probable that the process performed was much the same as in the 
salivary gland. He then instanced the reasons which led to this belief. He 
also described operations that were made in relation to the discovery of 
internal secretions, and thus concluded his paper. 
Manufacture of Albumen from Blood. — A new journal, the “ Laboratory/' 
for July (it is published in the United States), says that albumen is now 
produced on a large scale at Pesth, Hungary, and in North Germany, from 
the blood of animals. The serum separating when blood coagulates, consists 
chiefly of albumen. The best quality of albumen thus obtained is trans- 
parent and soluble in water, and is used for mordanting yarns and cloth. 
At Pesth blood is dried in flat iron pans, by exposure to air at a tempera- 
ture of from 100° to 112° F. From 300 lbs. of blood about 110 lbs. 
of albumen are obtained, at a cost of $29 ; 16,200 eggs would yield the 
same amount of albumen, at a cost of $96. Although the cost of egg albumen 
is three times as great as that of blood albumen, the former is preferred for 
dyeing purposes, on account of its purity. Blood albumen of a second 
quality, darker in colour, but nearly all soluble in water, is used largely in 
the process of refining sugar. 
The Seventh Report of the Peabody Trustees , at Cambridge, U.S.A., has 
just been published, and it opens with an account of the Agassiz collection 
obtained during the voyage of the Hassler, with descriptions of the crania and 
other specimens. One microcephalic skull, from Ancon, of an individual not 
quite adult, has the internal capacity 33 cubic inches, or 44 per cent, of the 
average Peruvian cranium, and much smaller that the crania of some Peruvian 
children not over seven years of age. Though probably idiotic, there are no 
marked signs of it. The closing article is on Human Remains in the Shell 
Heaps of the St. John River, East Florida, in which the author, Prof. Wyman, 
presents reasons for believing that cannibalism was practised by the Indians. 
In evidence of this, it is stated that the bones were not deposited as in 
ordinary burial, but scattered in a disorderly manner ; secondly, they were 
broken, as if reduced to a size suitable for the vessels used in cooking ; 
thirdly, there was a degree of method in the breaking of them, showing that 
it was not done by wild animals. (See also u Siiliman’s American Journal,” 
August.) 
Influence of Food and the Methods of applying it to Plants and Animals . — 
At the British Association Meeting (at Belfast), the President of the 
Medical Section, Dr. Redfern, read a paper on the above subject. He said 
he thought that, though people so frequently act as if food were a matter of 
