Scientific Intelligence.— Comparative Anatomy. 419 
M. Coquebert. The Ar gas per mens, the insect which has given 
rise to the exaggerated accounts of which we have taken notice 
above, is figured by M. Fischer in his notice. It is of the size 
of a bug, of a clear blood red colour, the back covered with 
white elevated points, the feet pale. It has a slight notch be- 
fore, and beneath the sucker occurs with small palpi, attenuated 
toward their root. The eight feet have six joints, and are of a 
pale yellow colour ; the terminal joint has two very small and 
hooked claws, at its curvature. — It is obvious, as Mr Fischer 
observes, that the accidents described by the travellers above 
alluded to, have had no connection with the puncture of this 
insect, but have arisen from a sort of malignant pustule, or an- 
thrax, caused by the intensity of the heat in summer in this 
marshy country, especially in strangers. The symptoms enu- 
merated agree precisely with those manifested by the disease in 
other countries, in the south of France for example, where it is 
equally attributed to the puncture of a venomous insect. The 
Faria infer nalis, which Linnaeus had been induced, from similar 
prejudices, to admit as the cause of a sort of gangrenous pus- 
tule, is no doubt in the same predicament ; the true cause of 
this disease in Sweden, being to be sought for in the heats of 
summer exerting their influence upon a marshy country. — 
Journal de Pharmacie^ No. 5. May 1824. 
C o M P A It A T I V E A X A T O VI Y. 
23. On the Nervous System of Avertebral Animals . — Profes- 
sor S. delle Chiaje of Naples maintains, from numerous expe- 
riments and observations, that the so-called nervous system in 
molluscous and other avertebral animals , is an absorbent system . 
The following, besides other statements, are given in piroof of 
the accuracy of this opinion. 1. The ganglia of the so-called 
nervous system are of different colours in different parts of the 
body, being yellowish, orange, whitish, and reddish. 2. The 
nerves occur most abundantly in the vicinity of the organs of 
digestion ; indeed, in some manner surrounding them. 3. He 
very frequently injected all of these nerves, and observed in 
some injections the mercury of the injection to pass from the 
nerves into the veins, and in others from the veins into the 
nerves. From these facts it follows, either that the system is 
d d 2 
