670 INCREASE OF THE EXTREMITIES OF LONG BONES. 
No. 2 the acrid, nauseous matter separated by ether; No 3 
the bitter principle highly concentrated; and No. 4 almost 
pure digitaline. M. Homolle experimented upon himself, 
and such violent vomiting and fearful head symptoms were 
produced by No 2, that the author well nigh paid his devotion 
to science with his life. No. 4 (digitaline) was proved to 
possess alone the power of lowering the pulse and increasing 
the quantity of urine. M. Leger, Physician to the Bicetre 
Hospital, who wrote an elaborate report on these experiments, 
tried some of the products (except No. 2, which had proved 
so severe) upon hospital patients, and verified the conclusions 
arrived at by M. Homolle, who certainly deserves every praise 
for his fearless and persevering efforts in the pursuit of phar¬ 
maceutical investigations.— Lancet. 
CATTLE DISEASE IN IRELAND. 
We learn from the Cork Constitution that the disease of 
young cattle, commonly known as “ Blackquarter,” prevails 
to an alarming extent in Kerry. A farmer residing in the 
neighbourhood of Killarney is said to have lost nineteen very 
valuable animals in the course of a few days. Others are 
sustaining similar losses. 
ON THE COMPARATIVE INCREASE OF THE TWO 
EXTREMITIES OF THE LONG BONES. 
As the result of experiments upon animals, M. Ollier 
comes to the conclusion that the humerus increases more by 
its upper than by its lower extremity, while the radius and 
ulna increase most by their lower extremities. In the lower 
limbs the relations are the reverse of this, for the lower ex¬ 
tremity of the femur increases more than the upper, the 
reverse of this being the case with the tibia. These results 
are of some consequence as regards resection and amputation 
in young subjects. Thus resection of the articular extremities 
at the elbow does not induce a very considerable arrest of 
development, since it is at their opposite extremity that the 
bones which constitute the joint chiefly increase. In the 
knee such arrest is much more to be feared, as it is at the 
ends forming the articulation that the tibia and femur most 
increase. For the same reason, and the proportion taken 
into account, excision of the shoulder exposes to more short¬ 
ening than that of the hip, and excision of the wrist more 
than that of the ankle .—Comptes Rendus , vol. lii, No. 4. 
